Skift Take
As Puerto Rico's tourism industry recovers, big business from global companies may sound great, but so does slow-and-steady growth based in local communities. Puerto Rican women are doing that community-focused work.
Melina Aguilar Colón stood before a group of 16 visitors at a local café in Ponce, Puerto Rico. It was a sunny, breezy day and a nice long walking tour of the city along the island's southern coast would soon begin. Only problem was the earthquakes had just hit: Museums were closed, some streets were cut off, and some structures were damaged and had to be appreciated from a distance. She went forth leading the tour anyway.
"I am worried that some museums might not open for months or years," said Aguilar Colón by email. Her tours are available on Local Guest, a women-run tours and experiences company based in San Juan that launched in 2017. "Overall Ponce is open for business and we need people to come and visit and support the economy. If not, cities and towns in the southern part of the island will become ghost towns because of the earthquakes, hurricanes, and bad governance."
She is one of many women in Puerto Rico working at the community level to keep the tourism industry healthy in the face of challenge after challenge
