Puerto Rico and the Caribbean
www.theweeklyjournal.com
>Josian E. Bruno Gómez
Wednesday, May 20-26, 2020 - // no. 056
Restaurants Get Creative to Survive P6 Triple-S Reports Mixed Results for Q1 2020 P8 Entrepreneurship Alive and Well P9
Opportunity to Accelerate Tourism Recovery COVID-19 Testing of All Arriving Passengers at LMM Estimated to Cost $51M Over 12 Months
A
>Jacey Duprie via AP
Rosario Fajardo
Elevating Loungewear in the COVID-19 Age P14
rfajardo@wjournalpr.com
@RosarioWJournal
way forward to reopen tourism in Puerto Rico, with health and safety protocols in place, would be to have universal COVID-19 testing for all arriving passengers at Luis Muñoz Marín (LMM) International Airport, according to a newly published white paper by the Foundation for Puerto Rico. The cost of such an endeavor would be about $51 million over the 12-month period from May 2020 to
April 2021. The research posits that passenger arrivals at LMM airport would rise steadily from around 80,000 a month in May 2020 to over 315,000 people by April 2021, as travel restrictions ease and the coronavirus epidemic is controlled. With each visitor directly contributing more than $700 to the local tourism economy, the investment in testing would lead to an estimated $56 million in monthly spending in the local economy in May 2020 and steadily increase GO TO PAGE 4