A marketing consultant who fell in love with Anguilla, its people and way of life when he first visited the island in 1997, is confident that he can attract large numbers of Puerto Rican visitors to the island. He is Guillermo Pino, Anguilla’s newly-appointed Tourism Representative there. “It’s a perfect market because it is so close yet so distant,” he said. “If you are from Puerto Rico, coming here would be perfect because you will get away from traffic, noise and work, yet you are so close to home.”

Mr. Pino, who was visiting Anguilla following his appointment, went on: “The main focus of my marketing this beautiful island in Puerto Rico is aggressiveness, yet very qualifying. We want to maintain Anguilla as it is and not to overflow it with too many visitors and so there has to be a healthy balance to the equation. We are trying to attract from Puerto Rico the upper middle young professionals and couples with young children who want to stay in a property, rent a car to explore to the island, have lunch in a restaurant and then dinner at the hotel. In that way they would share the wealth around.”

Asked how he viewed the attractions in Anguilla in terms of tourism, he replied: “I believe that the balance here is great because if you are looking for serenity, peace and relaxation, you can achieve it. On the same hand, if you are looking for dynamic activities like spear-fishing, going on a sail boat or participating in a regatta, you can also do it. If you come here and want to go on a shopping spree, you can just jump on the ferry and go to Marigot for half a day because we don’t want to keep you in St. Martin for too long.”

It was put to Mr. Pino that the increased number of visitors he was planning for Anguilla would call for additional flights to the island. “Our number one goal is to sit down with American Eagle which can become our biggest ally in terms of bringing Puerto Rican visitors to Anguilla,” he stated. “We need to work on additional flights and more attractive air fares to be able to motivate Puerto Ricans to visit Anguilla for short weekend getaways or for week-long family retreats.”

Deputy Director of the Anguilla Tourist Board, Candis Niles, commented: “We are really pleased to have Guillermo on board with us. He is very much committed to using his resources to market Anguilla to Puerto Ricans who we know are looking for the product that we have here. We are confident that we will be able to maximize the return on our investment in terms of family market, short-rate market as well as the markets that are available for our Summer Festival and the Tranquility Jazz Festival.”

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