Posted on 05/18/2016 12:46:42 PM PDT by cll
Puerto Rico's tourism industry is hoping to ease tourists' concerns about the Zika virus on the cash-strapped island, describing the extra precautions businesses are taking.
"We feel this has been blown out of proportion," Clarisa Jimenez, president and CEO of the Puerto Rico Hotel and Tourism Association told ABC News. "We have taken all the measures that the CDC has recommended from day one."
Tourism is particularly important to Puerto Rico, as the U.S. commonwealth struggles through its recession and its inability to pay $72 billion in public debt. Puerto Rico's hotel business comprises about 7.1 percent of the island's GDP, and adding satellite businesses brings the percentage closer to 10 percent, according to the Puerto Rico Tourism Company, the public corporation that promotes the island.
Following a strong year in tourism in 2015, occupancy rates grew 11 percent in January compared to last year, according to the Puerto Rico Tourism Company. But February growth was down 3 percent and March growth was down 5 percent.
The Puerto Rico Tourism Company is pushing to inform potential visitors about misconceptions about the presence of the virus on the island. Zika is typically spread by mosquito bites, but sexual intercourse can also spread the disease. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said Zika can cause a birth abnormality called microcephaly, in which babies are born with unusually small heads.
The tourism group hopes to make clear that the CDC hasn't banned travel to the island when it recently issued an "alert level two" notice to Puerto Rico and other destinations. The CDC suggests that travelers "practice enhanced precautions" when traveling to Puerto Rico. The CDC has three levels of travel warnings: watch level one, alert level two and warning level three.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
I thought MexiRico capsized or something
Zika isn’t the reason I wouldn’t want to go to Puerto Rico.
A travel agent told me I could spend six nights in Puerto Rico. No days, just six nights.
I asked him what do I do during the day, and he said, “I don’t care what you do, just stay out of Puerto Rico.”
-Rodney Dangerfield
I liked Vieques. Mostly unspoiled.
Lots of coca-een for sale though. Apparently it is a drug corridor now due to enforcement in other areas of the Caribbean and Mexico.
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that PR’s decline started when they kicked the US Navy out of Vieques.
How did Puerto Rico get so heavily in debt, anyone know?
I’m guessing that they don’t have a requirement to balance their budget every year. Or, they took shortcuts such as not fully funding pension plans.
Well the bill is due. When will Obama push through a rescue package? I expect him to do so.
I've been bitten by loads of mosquitoes, but have never had intercourse with one.
“growth was down”
What is that supposed to mean?
The media and statistics are not friends.
i take it the mosquitoes have to actually fly through the mist to die, cause there isn't enough coming out of that thing for it to work any other way
Supposedly the objective of that is to get to the larvae in water puddles. The mists are much more wide and large than it is apparent in the picture. But you’re right. Even that alone wouldn’t be enough. The big campaign here is to get rid of standing water accumulation first.
when i was a kid and the trucks went through the neighborhood it put out cubic yards a second... but that was before DDT was illegal
Voy pa’ alla en julio... Me llevo blusas de mangas largas y el spray OFF... ;-)
Saludos!
No está tan mal. People here don’t care and we’re still running around in shorts and flip flops.
Exacto... It seems more of an exaggeration in the mainstream media... I’d rather go to the Island than go on a cruise and get a Norovirus — the chances of that happening are greater than getting Zika in PR... I’ll have to develop my immune system by drinking a lot of Medalla, then! ;-)
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