By the Caribbean Journal staff
Puerto Rico is seeing very strong cruise numbers in 2018, according to Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello — and the island is even breaking records.
The island actually set a new record for cruise passenger arrivals in May, with 107,390 in the month, the most ever for that month.
According to Puerto Rico Tourism Company projections, the island is poised to reach 1.7 million cruise passengers in the 2018-2019 fiscal year, which would be the most ever.
Carnival Horizon.
That would represent a 41 percent increase compared to the previous year, with 544 confirmed visits.
“We are very pleased with the results obtained during the past fiscal year as a result of cruise activity,” the Puerto Rico Tourism Company said in a statement.
In that period, the island saw 1.2 million cruise visitors, with an approximate injection of $152 million into the local economy.
The growth was driven by the arrival of a number of megaships to the island, from Royal Caribbean’s Anthem of the Seas and Alllure of the Seas to the new Carnival Horizon.