Bad Bunny performing the first show of his 30-date residency at the Coliseo de Puerto Rico in San Juan. — Photos: AP
Puerto Rico’s summers are a time when tourism slows, hurricanes threaten and power outages increase. But this year’s doldrums have an unlikely bright spot: Bad Bunny.
The superstar’s 30-date concert run at the Coliseo de Puerto Rico that started on July 11 has led to a once-in-a-generation surge in flights and hotel bookings, giving the economy a trap-flavoured kick.
Discover Puerto Rico, the island’s tourism promotion agency, says it’s expecting 600,000 visitors during the period – about twice the average for those months – with the concerts pumping an estimated US$181mil (RM768.23mil) into the local economy.
The agency has no record of a single event that brought this many people to the island, not even Old San Juan’s famed annual San Sebastian festival.
Moody’s Analytics recently upgraded its economic forecast for the United States territory to account for a “Bunny bump”. The artist even posted a photo recently on his Instagram account with a woman holding a sign that reads, “Shop local for Bad Bunny’s concert.”
World tours are common in an era of globalised pop. And they can have a real impact on host cities, with Harvard Business Review estimating that Taylor Swift’s blockbuster Eras Tour poured US$10bil (RM42.44bil) into local economies across several continents.
But what Bad Bunny is doing – staying put – is unprecedented outside of Las Vegas residencies, said Jorge Perez, whose company runs the 18,500-seat Coliseo.
“You have the number one artist in the world who just released an album and is telling his followers, ‘I’m not going on tour, I’m going to have 30 dates, and if you want to see me, come to my island’,” said Perez, regional manager of ASM Global.
While Bad Bunny is going on a world tour, he only announced it after all the Puerto Rico dates were sold out.
Perez said the San Juan coliseum, affectionately known as the Choliseo, sold 450,000 tickets within four hours – a record for the venue.
Tourism jobs, which usually hover around 100,000 on an island of 3.2 million people, could see a temporary spike of about 3%, said Gustavo Rojas-Matute, assistant director of Moody’s Analytics. The jump could have been as high as 8% if the local economy wasn’t essentially at full employment, he said.
And the concerts are expected to boost GDP by about 0.15 percentage points, just enough to keep the economy from flat-lining for the fiscal year.
The influx of visitors “... is going to boost employment in the tourism sector for at least a quarter, but it’s probably going to carry out a little bit into the future,” Rojas-Matute said.
Since the residency was announced, thousands of accommodation bookings have been made near the show's venue.
Bad Bunny, whose real name is Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio, is a one-time grocery bagger who has become one of the world’s most bankable stars. He has appeared in the American Super Bowl half-time show, acted alongside Hollywood star Brad Pitt, and made frequent appearances on Saturday Night Live and the Tonight Show.
His latest album, Debi Tirar Mas Fotos (I Should Have Taken More Pictures) is infused with salsa, bomba and plena rhythms that showcase his Puerto Rican roots.
Carolina Ramirez of New York snagged six tickets to see Bad Bunny with relatives in August. Her family, much of which still lives on the island, decided to turn the event into a reunion of sorts. The tickets cost about US$200 (RM850) each, and Ramirez spent US$800 (RM3,395) for her flight. She’s expecting a house rental with her cousins and sister to run about US$1,000 (RM4,244) per person.
“Family is a priority for me,” said Ramirez, a partnership manager for excursion company Virgin Experience Gifts.
“I don’t mind spending that much money and making this trip, because it’s turned into a whole celebration. And I just love going back to the island.”
Discover Puerto Rico said there have already been 35,742 room nights sold in connection with the concerts at the 34 hotels it has been tracking. The agency has been flooding social media with tourism tips for Bad Bunny’s fans, hoping they’ll build entire itineraries around the shows.
“We’re trying to get people to come before the concert and stay after and encourage them to get outside the metro area,” said Glorianna Yamin, Discover Puerto Rico’s vice president of marketing. “We want to capitalise on this captive audience.”
Bad Bunny will start his world tour only after he is done with the residency in his hometown.
One of those hoping to cash in on the concert crowds is Sara Contreras, who owns two Airbnbs in Fajardo, a water-sports hub about 45 minutes from the capital. Fans are already booking the rentals in August, and she’s banking on a similar boost for September, typically a slow month.
“When people are reaching out, they’re saying, ‘We are going to Bad Bunny, and we’re extending our trip’,” said Contreras, a standup comedian who splits her time between New Jersey and Puerto Rico.
East Island Excursions, which runs boat charters, has introduced a “Coffee And Salsa” day tour – frequent themes on the new album – to appeal to concertgoers.
“We are really hopeful,” said Sorren Varney, the company’s director of sales and customer experience.
“We want this Bad Bunny boom to trickle down to everyone.”
The artist has a complicated relationship with the island’s political class. During the last general election, he actively campaigned for an alliance of opposition parties that promote independence from the US, and he financed billboards calling the current leadership corrupt. (Governor Jenniffer Gonzalez seems to have forgiven him, offering free concert tickets to select public workers and students.)
In addition, Bad Bunny’s refusal, thus far, to announce any tour dates on the US mainland has been interpreted by some as a political rebuke to President Donald Trump’s “America”.
Albert Laguna, who is teaching a Bad Bunny course at Yale University this fall, said Bunny’s decision to anchor his world tour in Puerto Rico is shining a light on the territory’s complicated history and its economic addiction to US visitors.
“You can kind of critique tourism all day, but also that person who can be selling water bottles outside the stadium – he’s going to have a good month or two,” he said. “Life is complicated and messy.” – Bloomberg
