Live From IPW: Discover Puerto Rico's Jorge Perez on Turning the Bad Bunny Moment Into a Movement

Welcome to a special IPW 2026 series of View From Afar. In this episode, recorded live from the conference floor, Discover Puerto Rico CEO Jorge Perez sits down with Afar editorial director Billie Cohen to talk about what happens after a residency that brought 400,000 people from 108 countries to a single island. Jorge came to Discover Puerto Rico with deep ties to the moment: as the former general manager of the Coliseo de Puerto Rico, he was in the room when Bad Bunny's manager called two years before the residency to block out 31 nights. The result was a $200 million economic impact in two months, a 245 percent spike in Puerto Rico searches after the Super Bowl halftime show, and a tourism story that has only accelerated since. In this conversation, Jorge and Billie discuss How the Bad Bunny residency was strategically built around July, August, and September (Puerto Rico's traditional low season) and what that meant for the island's overall tourism arc The 2025 numbers: 8.5 million visitors, 154 million dollars in room tax revenue, and 9 billion dollars in visitor spending—roughly double the 2019 figures Why Q1 2026 became the best quarter in Puerto Rican tourism history (and how the World Baseball Classic, the Puerto Rico Open, and the FIBA Women's World Cup qualifying tournament helped) The 17 percent jump in European visitors and the 28 percent jump from South America, and what's driving Discover Puerto Rico's expanded international strategy "Return the Love," the long-running campaign that asks visitors to treat the island and its people with respect—and how Jorge made a version for residency visitors before he took the CEO role The case for a Puerto Rico destination festival on the scale of Coachella or South by Southwest and why 2028 looks like the earliest realistic launch window Plus: a viral AI-generated song called "My First Time in Puerto Rico" that's reshaping cultural tourism in real time, the three bioluminescent bays you can only experience here, and a reminder that the island is the rum capital of the world. Resources The Afar guide to Puerto Rico Our Unpacked episode about exploring music on the island Stay Connected Subscribe to View From Afar to catch all our IPW 2026 episodes this week. Follow @AfarMedia on ⁠Instagram⁠ and ⁠TikTok⁠ for behind-the-scenes IPW content. ⁠Sign up⁠ for our travel industry newsletter, Afar Advisor. Rate and review the show to help other travel professionals discover these insights. Explore our other podcasts, ⁠Travel Tales⁠ and ⁠Unpacked⁠. This IPW 2026 special series was recorded live. View From Afar is a production of Afar Media and a part of Airwave Media's podcast network (email ⁠advertising@airwavemedia.com⁠ if you would like to advertise on our podcast). The podcast is produced by Aislyn Greene and Nikki Galteland, with assistance from Michelle Baran and Billie Cohen. Music composition from Epidemic Sound. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices