Puerto Rico’s touristic and business offerings will have a special place in New York City with the opening of a new interactive space in Manhattan.
Puerto Rico’s touristic and business offerings will have a special place in New York City with the opening of a new interactive space in Manhattan.
“This space, with its vitality and location, has enormous potential to help strengthen relations and productive bonds between Puerto Rico and other countries. It will be a source to relay the message that Puerto Rico is the ideal destination to find the best business, tourism, investment and entertainment opportunities. New York is one of the world’s most influential financial centers and one of the most visited cities in the world, which creates exponential exposure to our destination,” stated Puerto Rico’s Secretary of Economic Development and Commerce Alberto Bacó Bagué.
The space is a pop-up store concept located at 140 W. 51 St., on the first floor of New York’s Commonwealth of Puerto Rico Office. It features a video wall to show promotional videos for Puerto Rico and will also serve as a display area for local entrepreneurs to exhibit their products and services. “It will help promote the enterprises and projects of many entrepreneurs who are forming and growing in Puerto Rico, a place with great international relevance,” added Bacó Bagué.
“The storefront was designed by Warren James, an architect who is part of the Puerto Rican diaspora. The furniture was manufactured by La Factoría in Santurce, Puerto Rico. Everything has been coordinated with the intention to provide job opportunities for our local labor force,” detailed Mara Liz Meinhofer, Director of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico Office in New York City.
The location’s first exhibition, Destination Weddings, promotes the perfect places and various spots to celebrate weddings on the Island. After this exhibition, which will last until Dec. 19, Chocolate Cortés will be hosting an exhibition and offer its products, such as hot chocolate, to visitors. In the New Year, additional exhibitions and events will be featured as a way to highlight the best Puerto Rico has to offer.
Puerto Rico Tourism Company’s Executive Director, Ingrid I. Rivera Rocafort, explained that this first exhibition was created in collaboration with talented wedding planners, decorators, fashion designers and fine pastry confectioners. During Destination Weddings’ first weeks, a wedding dress designed by Puerto Rican fashion designer Stella Nolasco, a wedding cake created by master baker and cake designer Lourdes Padilla and the photography and videography of Wilo Rosado will be exhibited. The decoration and setting of the space is designed by Emilio Olabarrieta from Arquetipo, a Puerto Rican company that facilitates the creative elements needed for special events, such as destination weddings.
“The destination weddings niche is a major opportunity for the Island’s economic development. It engages numerous industries, such as wedding planners, hotels, designers, photographers and more, to merge in a unique way in order to create a memorable event,” expressed Rivera Rocafort. “Promoting Puerto Rico in New York as an ideal wedding destination makes sense, considering nearly 25 percent of our non-resident tourist registrations originate from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.”
“The Puerto Rico storefront will also provide a space where visitors will be able to experience the Rums of Puerto Rico. As a world-class rum producer, Puerto Rico has earned an international reputation for quality rum manufacturing. We want the people that come across this venue to recognize this fact, discover the reasons why we are known as the Rum Capital of the World and celebrate Rum Times. Rum manufacturing is one of our key growing industries. Promoting its awareness and consumption in the US market is essential to drive new opportunities into this segment,” concluded Rums of Puerto Rico Director, Pedro Cuéllar.
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