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El Yunque >Courtesy of Discover Puerto Rico
Discover Puerto Rico and Airbnb Launch New Website to Promote Domestic Tourism
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Passenger traffic at LMM Airport still well below normal
Rosario Fajardo rfajardo@wjournalpr.com @RosarioWJournal
Airbnb, one of the world’s largest marketplaces for places to stay and things to do, and Discover Puerto Rico, the island’s destination marketing organization (DMO), announced the launch of a new website as a part of their strategic alliance to promote safe and sustainable tourism on the island.
The website will promote local destinations that comply with safety and cleaning protocols as mandated by the local government and provide information about hosts and experiences.
In addition to the website, Discover Puerto Rico will have access to valuable insights, including Airbnb search and reservation trends to help inform the DMO’s marketing strategy and overall promotion of the destination. Both the platform and the island’s tourism promotion organization are adapting to current travel trends, with many travelers planning their winter vacations and opting for nearby destinations.
“Puerto Rico has implemented extensive precautionary measures since COVID-19 began, allowing us to welcome visitors with confidence. Our priority continues to be the safety of our residents and guests and their new needs compared to pre-COVID travel. Cleanliness, health checks, outdoor spaces, and natural attractions on a year-over-year basis, passenger traffic was have become fundamental aspects in the decision down by 41.5 percent in San Juan for the month of process of a trip. October.
“Puerto Rico is a leading destination in these ASUR also operates airports in Mexico and new protocols and has one of the largest dry Colombia, which also reported decreases in forests in the world, the only rainforest in the U.S. passenger traffic for October by 44.9 percent and National Forest system, impressive 67.8 percent, respectively. The pink salt flats, underground company reported that overall, caves, waterfalls, three of the five bioluminescent bays in the In fact, the facilities that it operates has been impacted by severe world, the longest zip line in the downturns in business and Americas and more than 300 Grupo leisure travel stemming from the miles of breathtaking coastline Aeroportuario del COVID-19 pandemic. among other natural settings that Sureste, the company travelers crave,” said Brad Dean, that manages New Cleaning Protocols CEO of Discover Puerto Rico. the LMM Airport, Earlier this year, Airbnb
“Thanks to technology, we can reported that on a introduced an overarching identify what people are looking year-over-year basis, cleaning and sanitization for and, above all, identify travel passenger traffic was guidelines in the home sharing trends. As we have seen in other down by 41.5 percent industry and evolved its countries in the recovery process, in San Juan for the health and safety practices to tourism to nearby places will be month of October. help ensure Airbnb hosts are the new way of traveling. We are providing the best and safest pleased to be able to work hand in stays possible. hand with Discover Puerto Rico to Last month, that company promote economic development announced that hosts and through tourism safely and sustainably,” said guests must agree to follow Airbnb’s COVID-19 Carlos Muñoz, Airbnb’s Public Policy manager for Safety Practices, which include wearing masks, Central America and the Caribbean. practicing social distancing, and, for hosts and their
The continuing need to promote domestic teams, abiding by a five-step enhanced cleaning tourism was underscored by the latest report on process. passenger movement at the Luis Muñoz Marín According to internal Airbnb guest review data, (LMM) International Airport that serves San Juan. 95 percent of all Airbnb reviews show that guests
Grupo Aeroportuario del Sureste (ASUR), the are satisfied with cleaning, scoring it at four or five company that manages the airport, reported that stars (out of five stars) after their stays.
Begins to integrate AT&T’s operations in Puerto Rico and the USVI
Rosario Fajardo rfajardo@wjournalpr.com @RosarioWJournal
It’s no secret that the coronavirus pandemic has been a boost for certain sectors and a bust for others. With so many people continuing to work and study from home, one booming sector continues to be telecommunications.
Liberty Puerto Rico reported solid revenue and subscriber growth for the third quarter of the year (Q3 2020), as the company began integrating AT&T’s wireless and wireline operations in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI) into its own.
Liberty added 42,700 revenue generating units (RGU) this quarter, driven by its growth in high-speed data (HSD) subscribers. Revenue for Liberty’s Q3 2020 stands at $114 million, which represents a 5 percent increase from Q2 2020 and a 10 percent increase compared to Q3 2019.
“These numbers show that we are in a solid position as we move into our expansion into mobile services,” said Naji Khoury, president and CEO of Liberty Puerto Rico. “We have been working hard in expanding and upgrading our network to handle a larger number of customers who are currently demanding much more broadband, versus the pre-pandemic months. We have faced challenges with our services, customer care and installations due to the record number of new customers and data usage due to the [pandemic] situation, but we have been working diligently in all of these issues and we have seen improvement.”
Liberty Puerto Rico has continued to expand and upgrade its infrastructure to accommodate the growing use of fixed Internet on the island during Q3 2020. Fixed Internet penetration has increased during the pandemic and even more with the recent subsidy program of $400 that the government established. Since March, the company has increased network capacity by 35 percent to accommodate increases in user data consumption. Liberty has also continued expanding its service footprint by adding 18,000 new homes as of Sept. 30, with its fiber to the home connections, which gives these homes speeds of up to 1 Gbps (billions of bits per second).
Liberty is focused on integrating the recently acquired wireless and wireline operations in Puerto Rico and the USVI from AT&T. Under the terms
of the agreement, AT&T will support Liberty for a began to recover from the impacts of COVID-19,” period of up to 36 months, enabling the efficient said Liberty Latin America CEO Balan Nair. transition of services. The combined company “We saw strong demand for our high-speed has a workforce of over 2,200 broadband-led propositions and employees and offers services in achieved record quarterly fixed all 78 municipalities across Puerto Rico and in the USVI. In fact, RGU additions in each of C&W [cable & wireless] and Puerto
During Q3 2020, Liberty Puerto Rico, with over 100,000 new Rico also focused its efforts on Liberty Puerto subscribers across both reporting helping students and customers Rico added 42,700 segments. Our C&W markets also facing financial hardships retain revenue generating swung back to mobile subscriber access to the Internet. “We have units (RGU) this growth following declines during helped approximately 11,000 quarter, driven by Q2, and we will build on this households that were facing its growth in high- momentum through the rest of economic problems related to speed data (HSD) the year,” he added. the pandemic, with free service,” subscribers. “We see a compelling Khoury said. opportunity to drive stakeholder value through our disciplined Positive Numbers for Latin inorganic growth strategy and we America are pleased that we completed
As reported by THE WEEKLY JOURNAL, Liberty the acquisition of AT&T’s assets in Puerto Rico Latin America (LLA) also reported strong revenue and the USVI. We believe that the combination growth for Q3 2020, driven in large part by new of these assets with our high-performing Puerto consumer behavior due to the coronavirus Rico operations, will create a leading integrated pandemic. communications player capable of providing
“Following a challenging second quarter, we enhanced value to customers, generating delivered improved financial and operating significant synergies, and bolstering LLA’s adjusted performance in Q3, as the majority of our markets free cash flow,” Nair said.
>Josian E. Bruno Gómez From the Statue of Liberty to Puerto Rico
HMS Ferries chosen to operate ferries to and from Vieques and Culebra
Rosario Fajardo rfajardo@wjournalpr.com @RosarioWJournal
The executive director of the Puerto Rico Public-Private Partnership Authority (P3A), Fermín Fontanés, announced that HMS Ferries Inc. was selected to operate and maintain the assets of the Maritime Transportation Authority (MTA) and operate the ferry service from Ceiba to and from Vieques and Culebra, through a public-private partnership (P3) for 23 years.
As part of the contract, HMS Ferries will receive at least $31 million a year to operate the ferry services.
The selection of HMS Ferries was the result of a “robust” bidding process that lasted more than two years, which fulfills the main objective of optimizing the operation of the maritime transport service offered by the MTA to the residents of Puerto Rico, especially to those living in the island municipalities of Vieques and Culebra, as well as the government’s objective of modernizing government functions to provide better and more efficient services to the people of Puerto Rico, Fontanés indicated.
Moreover, he said that the P3 agreement “is the adequate mechanism to finally achieve that both the islands of Vieques and Culebra, as well as
Cataño, have an efficient, reliable and consistent maritime transport system. We are convinced that the selection of HMS Ferries will serve to improve this service, according to the highest For years, local residents and tourists alike standards, according to successful models in other have complained about chronic delays and spotty jurisdictions.” service of the ferries to Vieques and Culebra. While
HMS Ferries is a world-class shipping company residents of the two island municipalities depend based in Washington State and is a subsidiary of on the essential service for travel to and from the HMS Global Maritime Inc., the largest passenger main island of Puerto Rico, thousands of local and car ferry operator in the U.S. mainland. The residents and tourists also use the ferry service company actually operates ferry services to the to vacation in Vieques and Culebra. Thus, the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor, Niagara Falls livelihood of many tourist-related businesses also between the U.S. and Canada, among others. depends on this essential service.
Among the responsibilities that will be In fact, the P3 announcement came after the transferred to HMS Ferries include: latest protest on the spotty service, • The administration of the operations of the MTA’s ferry system between Ceiba and the In fact, when two Vieques residents jumped in the water in the ferry terminal in Isabel Segunda, to try island municipalities of Vieques and stop the ferry from leaving, and Culebra (Isla Service) and the Metro Service, which consists of the route between Old San Juan and Cataño. • Maintenance of terminals and vessels. • Optimization of the ticket office system. • The operation and For years, local residents and tourists alike have complained about chronic delays and spotty service of the ferries to Vieques and Culebra. as they complained that there has only been one ferry in service in recent days. The ferry “Cayo Blanco” has reportedly been out of service since Oct. 30, resulting in long delays, with some Vieques residents saying that they have had to wait up to eight hours at maintenance of the Isla Grande time for the lone ferry in service, Maintenance Base facility in San “Isleño,” so that they can go home. Juan. “As we all know, for years the [MTA] has lacked
It is estimated that this public-private the ability to provide a consistent and reliable level partnership will result in savings of approximately of service for its passengers, and more importantly, $337 million for the government of Puerto Rico, for the residents of the islands of the municipality at the end of Phase II of the project, Fontanés of Vieques and Culebra, who need this essential indicated. Likewise, a more efficient, reliable and service for day-to-day survival. A little less than attractive service will promote visits by tourists a year ago, I made a commitment with these and visitors to the island municipalities, creating a residents to work to achieve the service to which potential environment for investment and business they are entitled and deserve. With this agreement, development that in turn will contribute to the we are moving in the right direction to achieve it,” economic development of Vieques and Culebra. said outgoing Gov. Wanda Vázquez.
Triple-S Reports Third Quarter 2020 Results
Utilization rates remain low due to COVID-19
Rosario Fajardo rfajardo@wjournalpr.com @RosarioWJournal
Triple-S Management Corp., a leading health care care company in Puerto Rico, announced its third quarter (Q3) 2020 results, which included strong revenue numbers and continuing lower utilization by members.
“Total operating revenue for the quarter was $942.9 million, a 13 percent increase from the prior year period driven by solid increases in Medicare premiums and a significant rise in Medicaid membership and average premium rates. We recorded adjusted net income of $12.1 million, or $0.61 per diluted share a 15 percent improvement from the third quarter of 2019,” reported Roberto García Rodríguez, president and CEO of Triple-S during the earnings conference call.
“We continue to experience overall lower utilization with MLR [medical loss ratio] decreasing 170 basis points year-over-year to 84.7 percent for the quarter. Since September, we’ve been seeing utilization approach its historic baseline as Puerto Rico residents, undergo deferred procedures. We are of course closely tracking the spread of COVID-19 and any potential impact it may have up or down on utilization going forward,” he added.
García indicated that the company’s strong Q3 performance reflects ongoing, improved performance resulting from their operational focus and enhanced organizational capabilities. “This has led to sustained membership momentum and premium growth in a difficult environment, particularly in the government markets sector.
Continuing this momentum, we are delivering a very competitive Medicare Advantage product for this year’s open enrollment period. Like most of our peer managed-care companies, we have also experienced lower than planned utilization due to the impact of the ongoing pandemic,” he explained.
Third Quarter 2020 Highlights
• Net income of $23.6 million versus net income of $13.9 million in the prior-year period; • Adjusted net income of $14.2 million, a 17.4 percent increase versus adjusted net income of $12.1 million in the prior-year period; • Operating revenues of $942.9 million, a 12.8 percent increase from the prior-year period, primarily reflecting higher Managed Care net premiums earned; • Consolidated loss ratio of 82.5 percent, a 90 >Brandon Cruz González basis-point improvement from the third quarter of 2019, reflecting higher premium rates and lower utilization; • Medical loss ratio of 84.7 percent, an improvement of 170 basis points over the same period last year; • Consolidated operating income of $22.3 million, a 17.4 percent increase compared to $19.0 million in the prior-year period.
Property & Casualty Segment
Updated information related to Hurricane Maria as of Sept. 30, 2020: • The company’s Property & Casualty subsidiary has paid a cumulative amount of $767 million in claims and expenses related to Hurricane Maria, which hit Puerto Rico in Sept. 2017. Estimated gross losses remain unchanged at $967 million. • Triple-S Propiedad, a subsidiary, closed 75 claims during the third quarter of 2020, increasing the number of claims closed to 97.5 percent; 434 claims remain open. • The company has been served with process with respect to 322 of the 434 claims that remain open. “[W]e are helping our members handle their medical needs safely and partnering with our providers and community organizations to assist our seniors and most vulnerable members during this challenging time,” García said.
Will it be a ‘V’ or a ‘K’?
The many shapes of recessions and recoveries
William Hauk, Economics Professor at the University of South Carolina
Recessions — typically defined as two consecutive quarters of declining economic output — are always painful in terms of how they affect our economic well-being. Like all bad things, fortunately, they eventually end and a recovery begins.
But not all recoveries or recessions look the same. And economists have a tendency to compare their varying paths with letters of the alphabet.
For example, during the current situation, you may have the heard the direction the recovery might take compared with a “V,” a “W” or even a “K.”
As a macroeconomist, I know this alphabet soup can be confusing for a lay reader. So here’s a guide to some of the most commonly used letters.
‘V’ for victory
While recessions are never a good thing, the “V-shaped” recovery is deemed the best-case scenario. In a recession with a V shape, the decline is rapid, but so is the recovery.
A good example of this type of recession took place in 1981 and 1982. That recession occurred after then-Federal Reserve Chair Paul Volcker rapidly raised interest rates beginning in 1979 in an effort to curb high inflation. This caused a sharp recession — leading to what was then the highest unemployment rate in the U.S. since the Great Depression.
But outside of economic circles, this recession is little remembered. Why? Primarily because the recovery was so rapid. After Volcker began cutting interest rates in the second half of 1982, the economy entered a recovery as sharp as the recession.
‘U’ and a long bottom
Conversely, a “U-shaped” recession generally has a longer duration, both for the downturn and the recovery period. The 2001 recession that followed the dot-com bubble and the 9/11 attacks fits into this category.
In some ways, the post-dot-com recession was a mild one. The fall in employment from the job market’s peak in February 2001 until the trough in August 2003 was only slightly less than 2%. Yet it took over two years of decline for the economy to bottom out, and it took another year and a half for the number of jobs to exceed the prerecession peak. Furthermore, the amount of time spent near the bottom of the recession was relatively long.
The reclining ‘L’
The last U.S. recession, which coincided with the financial crisis of 2008, was especially brutal.
Economists call it an “L-shaped” recession because there was an initial sharp downturn, but a very plodding recovery. To see the L, you need to imagine the letter sort of reclining backward on its end.
The economy declined rapidly after the September 2008 failure of Lehman Brothers, and employment plunged about 6.3% from its
prerecession peak before reaching its low point. The pace of job creation in the recovery was very slow. It took almost 4½ years to recover all the jobs lost.
It may be hard to see how a K could be applied to data on a graph, but it’s the letter increasingly being used to describe the path of the current recession and eventual recovery.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell didn’t call it a “K” but that’s basically what he meant when he discussed the current economic trajectory in a recent address. He expressed concerns that the U.S. will experience a “two-track recovery” in which things get better quickly for some people, while staying bad for others.
Is that the kind of recession we’re in?
It’s unclear. So far, looking at the whole economy, the U.S. has what has been called a “checkmark” or “swoosh” recession. It began to look something like a V, with a sharp drop in employment and then the beginnings of a rapid increase. But that recovery has begun to stall — though not for everyone.
As Powell suggested, the recovery could look different to various groups. White-collar workers may see a “V,” as their jobs are more capable of being done remotely. Blue-collar workers are seeing something closer to a U or L. One analysis shows that medium- to high-wage workers have gained back virtually all the jobs lost during the shutdown earlier this near. Conversely, employment of lower-wage workers is still more than 20% below its pre-COVID-19 peak.
Recessions are tough for anyone to live through. However, the shape of the recovery can make it more or less bearable. — This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.
Five Tips To Move More Every Day This Holiday Season
Make fitness part of your holiday traditions
Active Aging
The holidays are almost upon us, and with them, all the preparations, decorations, gatherings, and food! While these festive months are full of fun and family, they can also put us off our normal routines — and fitness is often the first thing we lose sight of. Here are a few tips to keep you moving this holiday season.
1. Get in Some Pre-Holiday Training
Let’s face it, the holidays can be physically exhausting with all the food preparation, house cleaning, and decoration hanging. Prime yourself for all the preholiday activity with some focused training. Get ready to hang those lights by incorporating step-ups with an overhead reach into your workout. Stretch your hamstrings and strengthen your quads with squats to get you ready to pull decorations out of boxes. You can even do some “rowing” at home if you have an exercise band to loop around your feet when you sit with your legs outstretched. Pull back on the band and squeeze your shoulder blades together to get those arm and chest muscles ready to roll out cookies and pie crusts and lift young loved ones.
2. Make Your Fitness Festive
Holiday gatherings don’t have to be only about food. Whatever your normal fitness activities, invite your friends and add some socially-distant holiday flare this season. Why not enjoy a game of tennis dressed as turkeys, or Christmas trees? Or set up a holiday golf tournament with a prize white elephant gift for each range of possible scores. Or theme your dance class with holiday music and string lights. Whatever activity you do, do it in costume (masks included) or add decorations and music. That way, you don’t have to choose between celebrating with friends and staying active.
3. Get in Some Big Day Warm Ups
Before coordinating the oven schedule for each dish, setting up and decorating the tree, or measuring ingredients for your cookie baking marathon, make time for a little warm up. Jump in the pool and swim a few laps. Try a gentler series of yoga poses to ease into movement and get the added benefit of stress relief and mindfulness. Once you’re warmed up, you’ll feel ready to take on whatever tasks and surprises your big day throws at you.
4. Use Holiday Music to Motivate Your Movement
Whether you’re zipping around the house making sure everything is in order, or sitting around the living room with family, festive music will lift your mood and get you moving! Maybe you have a dance party with your teenagers or grandkids (even if it’s over Zoom, they’ll love seeing your moves! It’s time they learned our favorites anyway. Who ever said disco was dead?) This holiday season, it’s all about incorporating more movement into your everyday activities and being intentional about staying active.
5. Take After Dinner Walks
Often the holidays mean a lot of sitting. It’s not only sitting down to a big family meal, we also sit to watch the parade or the game and sit around the fire for hours to chat with guests and family. This holiday season, institute “After Dinner Walks” and take the whole crew outside for a stroll to see how the neighbors have decked out their houses! A little fresh air and a stretch of the legs does the whole family good and gives you even more to talk about. Who knows, they might want to make decoration walks a new tradition! The holidays are always a busy time with distractions from our usual routines. This holiday season, try incorporating movement and fitness into the busy-ness and festivities instead of trying to carve time out of an already full schedule. With all this movement, you might not even need a New Year’s resolution!
“Insurrectas,” writers Milton Brito and Josué Rodríguez, through a fictional narrative and the medium of biography, “rescue” the lives of 20 Puerto Rican women from the 16th century to the present, which include “cacicas” (Taíno leaders), slaves, freedwomen, patriots, working leaders, poets, politicians, singers and a “maipiola” (matchmaker), who have left their symbols of female empowerment over time.
“We started this methodology after Hurricane Maria (in 2017) during the time without electricity and we sat down to write to see how many women we [could note]. We created a list of more than 50 to write stories from their gaze and from people who were present at that time. This is one of the fictional parts of the book and the other collects biographical information, readings, history, films and documentaries. We made the list in one sitting, dedicated to our mothers to honor them too, and it wasn’t that difficult,” Brito said.
This anthology of insurrectionists is made up of María de Caguas, Celestina Cordero, Ana María, Mariana Bracety, Ana Roqué de Duprey, Luisa Capetillo, Felisa Rincón de Gautier, Isabel Oppenheimer, Julia de Burgos, Isolina Ferré Aguayo, Rebekah Colberg Toro, Ruth Fernández, Rita Moreno, Sila María Calderón, Antonia Martínez Lagares, Iris Chacón, Sonia Sotomayor, Ednita Nazario, Mayra Santos Febres and Mónica Puig.
“María de Caguas, one of the cacicas we chose, was already leading a group of Taínos by the age of nine. Her fight was against the Spaniards, although she was forced to marry one, and on the way to Spain, her ship wrecked. We do not know what happened, but we string together with fiction the horrible life she lived and what happened inside the ship. She challenged Juracán to get to the island and escape. Another story is that of the freed [slave] Celestina Cordero, sister of teacher Rafael Cordero, who from a young age became a teacher of slave and free girls. She was fighting the government to get her [teaching] title -and this is a true story- until she died,” added Brito, who works in transformative research projects, community empowerment and art dedicated to vulnerable populations.
Inspiring stories for everyone
“Invited by the writer Yolanda Arroyo Pizarro, who holds the Ancestral Black Women chair, she gave us to read ‘La Gaceta de Puerto Rico’ (founded in 1806), where there was news of the time and we found the advertisement of a person who owned a slave he had freed. The ad is very short and it was from Vega Baja, our town. Based on the story in fiction, except for its name, we construct a story Josué Rodríguez and Milton Brito began the project after Hurricane
History, Fiction and Female Empowerment
‘Insurrectas’ highlights the lives of 20 women from the 16th century to the present
Jorge Rodriguez jrodriguez@elvocero.com
With the title of
Maria in 2017. >Courtesy of brown women who escaped the oppression of their masters with the complicity of the hacienda owner’s wife, where they lived. The story ends on Aug. 4, 1872, and in La Gaceta, it is announced that Doña Belén Torres returned freedom to her slave Ana María,” Rodríguez added.
He underscored that as educators, their interest is to make these stories visible, especially to guide today’s youth, not only to learn about these illustrious lives but also to be inspired by these great women and invite them to find out and seek more information about their real lives.
“Most of them are quite well known, but their stories are inspirational — like Ednita Nazario’s — and we narrate it from the perspective of empowering women to assume their sexuality, not accept abuse, inspire women to love their body, to be strong, in defense of the LGBTQ+, with a long and wide journey toward adulthood. As for Isabel Oppenheimer, ‘Isabel la Negra,’ we focus on her impact on the population of Ponce, where she had her brothel. With higher standards, she supports poor families in her city and wanted to be veiled in the Cathedral, but the bishop objected. Her funeral was attended by over 13,000 people,” Rodríguez told THE WEEKLY JOURNAL. For Julia de Burgos, they wove a different story in search of trying to be as poetic as possible. They tried to tell her art and her life as a poet in a short story as if death had fallen in love with her. “We also cover women from different historical moments to the present, of different professions, depending on the different paths of their lives,” Rodríguez said.
