House committee reviews bill to restore Puerto Rico Tourism Company as public corporation

The House of Representatives convened a public hearing on Thursday, Sept. 25, at 9:40 a.m. to review P. de la C. 822, a proposal to recognize and preserve the Puerto Rico Tourism Company as a public corporation with statutory powers, governance rules and operational divisions. The Tourism Company’s legal adviser, licenciado Raúl Márquez, read a prepared position statement and answered members’ questions on behalf of the executive director; Nilsa Rodríguez Rivera, identified in the record as the company’s chief financial officer, accompanied him.

The bill’s purpose, as presented, is to restore the Tourism Company’s corporate status (reversing a prior 2017 reorganization that had proposed converting it into an office within the Department of Economic Development and Commerce), to re-establish the company’s board structure, to assign contracting and regulatory powers to the company and to statutorily create or elevate an Office of Air and Maritime Access. Marquez told the committee that a prior reorganization included a clause that suspended the effect of the change until the department secretary certified completion of a transition; that certification never occurred, and the company has continued operating de facto as a public corporation. "El cambio que estamos proponiendo realmente no es un cambio, sino es reconocer una realidad que tenemos de facto y jurídicamente," Marquez said.

Why it matters: Tourism, presenters said, is a major economic engine for Puerto Rico. The Tourism Company’s written statement cited an estimated total economic impact of $18,000,000,000 in 2024, composed in the document of roughly $11.7 billion in direct visitor spending plus additional indirect and induced effects; the statement also recorded room-occupancy (canon) receipts of about $142.5 million for fiscal 2024. Supporters told committee members the bill would preserve the company’s ability to contract, audit short-term lodgings, manage promotional matching funds with airlines, and retain and distribute room-tax receipts according to the formula in Article 31 of Ley 272 (2003). Marquez emphasized the company’s existing powers and argued the bill mainly restores statutory clarity.

Discussion highlights and staff clarifications

- Governance and powers: The draft would return the executive director to the board of the Puerto Rico Convention District and change the executive-director appointment mechanism so the board appoints the director on merit (the memorial text reads that the executive director "será nombrado por la junta basándose en sus méritos profesionales"). The bill also raises the administrative threshold for contracts that require full-board approval from the previously referenced $150,000 figure to $350,000 in the current draft.

- Fiscal distribution and room-tax (canon) flows: Committee members pressed the presenters for precise numbers and for a line-item breakdown of how room-tax receipts are used. Marquez described the statutory sequence from Ley 272 (2003): an initial deposit to the General Fund (the memorial cites $30 million as a baseline transfer to Hacienda), a statutory retention for the Tourism Company to fund its collection/administration functions (described in the memorial as 2 percent), statutory allocations to the Convention District and to Puerto Rico’s DMO under Law 17 (2017), and direct municipal transfers. The company agreed to provide a detailed breakdown of recent distributions to the committee within ten days.

- Air and maritime access, routes and incentives: The memorial describes an Office of Air and Maritime Access that negotiates with airlines and cruise lines and can use matching funds to attract new routes. Marquez and representatives described examples (Iberia’s route expansion, work at FITUR, and the upcoming FCCA conference to be held in Puerto Rico) and said the office actively negotiates promotional matching funds with carriers.

- Ports and cruise terminals: Legislators raised capacity and concession issues at cruise berths, particularly the Pan-American pier (muelle panamericano) and the impact of private concessionaires such as San Juan Cruiseport/Globalport. Presenters said the Tourism Company can pay certain berthing-related incentives (the memorial cites roughly $12 million in annual incentives tied to cruise calls) but does not own ports; port improvements require coordination with the Puerto Rico Ports Authority and existing concession holders. Committee members asked the company to pursue legislative or administrative options to accelerate pier repairs and pier-concession coordination.

- Licenses and certification for maritime/tour operators: Members described lengthy delays at the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources (DRNA) for renewal of nautical operator licenses. Marquez explained that the Tourism Company cannot lawfully certify operators until DRNA issues or renews the required license; the memorial and witnesses noted the company has at times issued temporary certifications to reduce disruption but said those certifications are constrained by statute. The committee asked the presenters to propose statutory language or administrative approaches to harmonize licensing and certification, and to provide recommendations for legislative fixes.

- Short-term rentals and enforcement: The memorial reiterates the Tourism Company’s authority to audit short-term rentals and to maintain a registry of hosts; members asked about enforcement of room-tax collections from platforms and individual hosts. Presenters said the company has authority to register and pursue noncompliant hosts but that permit issuance remains with the Office of Permits and other agencies.

- Visitor and capacity data: The Tourism Company provided multiple visitor and airport figures in the memorial and in oral testimony: calendar 2024 airport passenger traffic of about 13.2 million (an 8.6 percent increase over 2023), 2023 airport traffic of about 12.2 million, 2022 about 10.3 million, 2021 roughly 9.7 million, and 2020 a pandemic low of about 4.845 million; April 2025 airport arrivals were described as about 574,000. The company agreed to provide the committee with additional forecasts and a five‑business‑day delivery window for certain requested data.

Safety, municipalities and marketing

Committee members pressed for the company’s role in visitor safety, especially beach and inland-water drownings. Marquez said the Tourism Company funds staffing and lifeguard towers in some locations, supports signage and a swim-safety digital platform (SwimPR.com), and participates in interagency dialogues. Legislators asked for proposals to strengthen on-the-ground safety and public information campaigns.

Regional tourism, mountain destinations and tourism medical

Members representing mountain and non-coastal districts sought confirmation that the bill would enable programs for rural, gastronomic and agritourism (coffee and cacao farm visits, canyon and lake attractions) and asked about tourism medical initiatives (including a pending hospital project in Vieques that advocates see as a platform for medical tourism). Presenters acknowledged interest and suggested follow-up coordination with the company and committee staff.

Committee direction and next steps

No formal vote occurred at the hearing. The committee set follow-up tasks: the Tourism Company will provide requested fiscal and visitor-forecast data (timeline discussed in the hearing); the committee scheduled a subsequent hearing for Oct. 1, 2025, at 9 a.m. to receive testimony from the Department of Economic Development and Commerce (DDEC) and the Office of Management and Budget on the bill’s budgetary impacts; and staff were asked to draft potential statutory language to address licensing pre‑requisites and port-concession coordination for committee consideration.

Sources and attribution

The article is based on the public hearing record for P. de la C. 822 held before the House of Representatives on Sept. 25, 2025. Quotations and data cited in this report are drawn from the Tourism Company’s memorial and the hearing exchange as read or delivered by licenciado Raúl Márquez and other committee members, and from statements attributed in the memorial to the Tourism Company.

Ending: The committee closed the hearing at 11:37 a.m. and will reconvene for further review on Oct. 1, 2025, when DDEC and OMB officials are scheduled to appear.