Above: the Ritz-Carlton San Juan

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Expedia reported 40 percent growth in bookings in the Puerto Rico market during the third quarter, the Washington-based firm announced this week.

According to the online travel company, a majority of the demand for travel to Puerto Rico is coming from consumers in the US, Canada and Italy.

That echoes what Marco Tagliatti, vice president of Lodging Supply for Latin America and the Caribbean, told Caribbean Journal in an interview last month.

““Expedia has been a strong partner of the Puerto Rico Tourism Company, especially in regards to driving demand to our local destinations through our recent Fall Promotion,” said Luis G Rivera-Marín, Executive Director of the Puerto Rico Tourism Company. “Through our close collaboration with Expedia, we’ve experienced meaningful growth not only from traditional markets like the U.S., but also from international markets like the U.K., Germany and Mexico, where our local hotels have not historically had much exposure.”

Vacation packages represent more than one-third of the bookings made to Puerto Rico on Expedia-branded sites worldwide, the company said, with such package bookings typically showing booking windows that are 70 percent longer than the average standalone hotel booking.

“Traditionally, the United States has represented a leading source of demand for Puerto Rico, and we expect that trend to continue.” Tagliatti said. “As the brands within the Expedia group launch new international sites, such as Expedia.mx in Mexico, we’re seeing demand for travel to Puerto Rico grow from those countries as well,” said Marco Tagliatti, vice president of Lodging Supply for Latin America and the Caribbean for Expedia. “In fact, Mexico is now one of the fastest-growing sources of travel demand for Puerto Rico hotels on Expedia group sites, experiencing triple-digit growth over the previous year.”