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NoneLebawit Lily Girma | (TNS) Bloomberg News When winter rolls around, travelers predictably turn their attention to beaches. And this year, it’s the destination that comedian Tony Hinchcliffe called “a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean” that’s experiencing outsize demand from Americans planning a warm island vacation. Talk about trashing stereotypes. Related Articles Travel | Would you pay $700 a night to sleep under the stars at this Colorado resort? Travel | Thailand’s starring role in ‘The White Lotus’ is about to pay off Travel | 5 under-the-radar travel destinations the UN says you should visit Travel | Gift ideas for people planning their next trip Travel | Lights and decor, réveillon meals make Christmastime special in New Orleans Puerto Rico has recovered overseas visitors (excluding those from Canada and Mexico) faster than any U.S. state or territory — a staggering 85% increase over its 2019 overseas inbound visitor levels as of 2023, according to an October study from the U.S. National Travel and Tourism Office. There are now more daily flights from the U.S. West Coast, and hotel bookings are 6% higher so far in this last quarter of 2024 year-over-year. It’s a trifecta of tourism growth: more visitors, but also longer stays and a higher spend that reached a record $9.8 billion in 2023, boosting small businesses as well as major brands. “We don’t have a slow season in Puerto Rico anymore,” says Brad Dean, chief executive officer at Discover Puerto Rico. Even if they’re not booking, people are dreaming about “La Isla.” By tracking flight searches for trips between November 2024 and February 2025, a measure of “inspirational” demand, tourism intelligence company Mabrian Technologies reports Puerto Rico is up 9% compared with the same period last year and leads Barbados, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica and the Bahamas in the Caribbean proper. Only Costa Rica ranked higher in the wider region. Dean attributes Puerto Rico’s ongoing tourism growth to a strategic effort to reposition the island’s brand as more than a sun-and-sea destination, starting back in 2018. That led to the Live Boricua campaign, which began in 2022 and leaned heavily on culture, history and cuisine and was, Dean says, “a pretty bold departure” in the way Puerto Rico was showcased to travelers. He adds that at least $2 billion in tourism spend is linked to this campaign. “We (also) haven’t shied away from actively embracing the LGBTQ+ community, and that has opened up Puerto Rico to audiences that may not have considered the Caribbean before,” Dean says. Hotels are preparing to meet this growing demand: A number of established boutique properties are undergoing upgrades valued between $4 million and more than $50 million, including Hotel El Convento; La Concha, which will join the Marriott Autograph Collection; Condado Vanderbilt Hotel; and the Wyndham Grand Rio Mar. That’s in addition to ultra-chic options that are coming online in 2025, including the adults-only Alma San Juan, with rooms overlooking Plaza Colón in the heart of Old San Juan, and the five-star Veranó boutique hotel in San Juan’s trendy Santurce neighborhood. The beachfront Ritz-Carlton San Juan in Isla Verde will also be reopening seven years after Hurricane Maria decimated the island. The travel industry’s success is helping boost employment on the island, to the tune of 101,000 leisure and hospitality jobs as of September 2024, a 26% increase over pre-pandemic levels, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Efforts to promote Puerto Rico’s provinces beyond the San Juan metro area — such as surfing hub Rincón on the west coast, historical Ponce on the south coast and Orocovis for nature and coffee haciendas in the central mountains —have spread the demand to small businesses previously ignored by the travel industry. Take Sheila Osorio, who leads workshops on Afro-Puerto Rican bomba music and dance at Taller Nzambi, in the town of Loíza, 15 miles east of San Juan; or Wanda Otero, founder of cheese-producing company Vaca Negra in Hatillo, an hour’s drive west of Old San Juan, where you can join a cheese-making workshop and indulge in artisanal cheese tastings. “The list of businesses involved in tourism has gone from 650 in 2018 to 6,100, many of which are artists and artisans,” Dean says. While New Yorkers and Miami residents have always been the largest visitor demographic, Dean says more mainland Americans now realize that going to Puerto Rico means passport-free travel to enjoy beaches, as well as opportunities to dine in Michelin-rated restaurants, hike the only rainforest in the U.S. and kayak in a bioluminescent bay. Visitors from Chicago and Dallas, for example, have increased by approximately 40% from July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024, compared with the same period in 2022-2023, and more travelers are expected from Denver now that United Airlines Holdings Inc. has kicked off its first nonstop service to San Juan, beginning on Oct. 29. Previously, beach destinations that were easy to reach on direct flights from Denver included Mexico, Belize and California, but now Puerto Rico joins that list with a 5.5-hour nonstop route that cuts more than two hours from the next-best option. Given United Airlines’ hub in San Francisco, it could mean more travelers from the Golden State in the near future, too. In December, U.S. airlines will have 3,000 more seats per day to the territory compared with the same period last year, for a total of 84,731 — surpassing even Mexico and the Dominican Republic in air capacity, according to data from aviation analytics firm Cirium. Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport, the island’s primary gateway, is projecting a record volume of 13 million passengers by year’s end — far surpassing the 9.4 million it saw in 2019. As for Hinchcliffe’s “floating island of garbage” line, Dean says it was “a terribly insensitive attempt at humor” that transformed outrage into a marketing silver lining, with an outpouring of positive public sentiment and content on Puerto Rico all over social media. Success, as that old chestnut goes, may be the best revenge. “It was probably the most efficient influencer campaign we’ve ever had,” Dean says, “a groundswell of visitors who posted their photos and videos and said, ‘This is the Puerto Rico that I know.’” ©2024 Bloomberg L.P. Visit bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Amazon.com Inc. AMZN founder Jeff Bezos shared insights into his success his approach to achieving massive success. What Happened: Earlier this week, in an interview at the New York Times DealBook Summit, Bezos was asked about his confidence in building large-scale companies like Amazon and Blue Origin . Bezos is currently the world’s second richest person, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. His net worth currently stands at $240 billion, having increased by $63.4 billion in 2024 till date. While responding, he explained that it is common for people to overestimate risks and underestimate opportunities. Bezos advised entrepreneurs to counteract this tendency by recognizing that perceived risks might not be as significant as they seem, while opportunities could be more substantial than anticipated. He continued saying, "You say it's confidence, but maybe I'm just accepting that human bias and trying to compensate against it." See Also: Trump's AI Czar Plans, Alibaba's New Model, Cathie Wood On Tesla AI, And Musk's Combat Transformation: This Week In Artificial Intelligence The Amazon founder also made another observation, saying, "The second thing I would point out is that thinking small is a self-fulfilling prophecy." Simply put, he meant to say that if a person believes they can only accomplish small things, they’ll act in ways that make that belief come true. Subscribe to the Benzinga Tech Trends newsletter to get all the latest tech developments delivered to your inbox. Why It Matters: During the interview, Bezos also expressed optimism about Donald Trump’s second term, highlighting the potential for reducing regulations. “We do have too much regulation in this country,” he stated while showing willingness to assist in streamlining rules. He also addressed America’s national debt crisis, advocating for a growth-oriented approach to spending cuts. Bezos spoke about the need to boost GDP growth to 3-5% annually while maintaining slower debt growth. In the interview, Bezos also revealed that he is dedicating significant time to ensure Amazon remains a leader in AI. “My heart is in Amazon, my curiosity is in Amazon, and my fears are there and my love is there,” he stated, adding. “I’m never going to forget about Amazon. I’ll always be there to help, and right now, I’m putting a lot of time into it. I can help, and it’s super interesting, so why not?” Price Action: Amazon’s stock climbed 2.94% on Friday, closing at $227.03, before slipping 0.29% in after-hours trading. Year-to-date, Amazon shares have soared 51.42%, outperforming the Nasdaq 100 index's 30.7% gain during the same period, according to data from Benzinga Pro . Amazon’s consensus price target, based on evaluations from 38 analysts, is $238.16, with JMP Securities assigning the highest target of $285 on Nov. 1. Latest ratings from Needham, BMO Capital, and MoffettNathanson average $244.67, implying a 7.8% upside. Check out more of Benzinga’s Consumer Tech coverage by following this link . Read Next: ESPN Lands On Disney+ in Major Content Fusion: Here’s What It Actually Means Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors. Photo courtesy: Shutterstock © 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.For most U.S. residents, the sun went down earlier on one of the past few days than at any other time of the year. Jarringly early December sunsets are the result of the annual “fall back” from daylight saving time to standard time. But what if we had never sprung forward in the first place? Incoming Trump administration “government efficiency” advisers Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy posted recently in favor of dumping daylight saving time for good. On the flip side, in 2022, the U.S. Senate advanced a plan to make daylight saving time permanent. Either plan would get rid of the twice-a-year clock changes, as almost two-thirds of Americans say they want. But the country may be too spread out for a one-size-pleases-all solution. Depending on your latitude and how close you are to the edge of your time zone, you could end up with some unexpected daylight extremes. For example, when we moved our clocks back an hour last month, we doomed the people of northern Maine to darkness at 3:45 p.m. on Dec. 10, the earliest nightfall in the Lower 48. If we stayed on standard time year-round, those folks also would have June daylight streaming through their windows as early as 3:39 a.m. On the other hand, if we went with daylight saving time year-round, some North Dakotans wouldn’t get sunrise until after 9:45 a.m. for part of the winter. Related Articles And it’s not just a few remote places. All of Michigan and most of Indiana, including the Detroit and Indianapolis metro areas, would have at least some post-9 a.m. winter sunrises thanks to the states’ positions at the western edge of the Eastern time zone. The country attempted a two-year trial of permanent daylight saving time starting in 1974, but the experiment lasted just 10 months. Sunrise for most of the country came around 8:30 a.m. or later in the dreariest parts of winter, so most people commuted to work and school in the dark. Americans said the sunless mornings made them cranky, sad and less safe. Later research would back them up, indicating that permanent standard time works better with our biological rhythms, especially our sleep patterns. President Gerald Ford reversed the plan, and most of us have been on a clock-changing, hybrid system ever since. – – – It’s not just us The United States is among a few dozen countries that fiddle with the clocks every year. Most are in the Americas and Europe, where daylight saving time is called European Summer Time. Even within a country’s borders, some jurisdictions opt out. Hawaii, most of Arizona and most U.S. territories are permanently on standard time. Most of the Saskatchewan province of Canada doesn’t change its clocks, but most of the rest of the country does. Mexico adopted daylight saving time in 1996. Then all but a few parts of the country got rid of it again in 2022. Local experts cited widespread sleep disorders among the reasons for chucking the time changes. – – – Does more daylight save energy? Daylight saving time dates to the early 1900s and was first widely adopted during World War I by most European countries and, eventually, the United States. Longer daylight, the thinking went, would reduce the need for electric lighting in factories. Saving power was also the goal of the experiment in 1974, as the country slogged through an energy crisis so dire that only a single light adorned the National Christmas Tree in 1973. Trump wants to turn the clock on daylight saving time /*! This file is auto-generated */!function(d,l){"use strict";l.querySelector&&d.addEventListener&&"undefined"!=typeof URL&&(d.wp=d.wp||{},d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage||(d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage=function(e){var t=e.data;if((t||t.secret||t.message||t.value)&&!/[^a-zA-Z0-9]/.test(t.secret)){for(var s,r,n,a=l.querySelectorAll('iframe[data-secret="'+t.secret+'"]'),o=l.querySelectorAll('blockquote[data-secret="'+t.secret+'"]'),c=new RegExp("^https?:$","i"),i=0;iAfter a video of a Georgia middle school teacher throwing a student across the classroom was , we now know what came of him. However, the outcome was the justice the boy’s mother had hoped for. Che’Nelle Russell, the mother of 11-year-old TJ, told she saw of DeRenne Middle School teacher and football coach BeTreylin Elder on Dec. 6. The video shows the teacher grabbing TJ by his shirt and throwing him into the middle of the room. The boy topples into two desks, both occupied by students, before As the boy lifts himself off the ground, Elder is seen standing directly above him, looking down at him, the video shows. Before the incident, TJ’s mother told reporters about an alleged inappropriate comment the teacher made to the child. Another student, per the report, said it was a sexual jab about TJ’s mother saying he “left his shoes at TJ’s mom’s house.” “I was told that he had a share of words that were inappropriate to TJ and that he had made some remarks about me, and my son was unhappy with it. So, my son then went to the front of the classroom to approach the teacher, letting him know, ‘Hey, stop talking about my mom.’ The teacher then came closer to my son. My son again said, ‘Stop talking about my mom’, and also wanted to call me. From that point, he was then grabbed and thrown to the floor like nothing,” said Russell via . As a result of the incident, Russell said and an overall fear of going back to school. The report says Russell has since called on the teacher to and also for the school district to take accountability as well. “I hate that [TJ] had to be made an example out of to get a sick individual out of a schoolhouse, but something needs to change,” Russell said via . According to Savannah Chatham County Public School System, Elder was relocated to another school within the district after the report of the incident. There are no details as to whether he faced any form of punishment or reprimand. However, over the weekend, Elder decided to abandon mission altogether and sent in his resignation letter, the district said. They then vowed to take situations like this seriously moving forward. “Please be assured that this was an isolated incident and we take matters like this extremely seriously. The safety and well-being of our student population are of the utmost importance to us, and we are committed to maintaining a safe and supportive environment for all,” the district said in a statement.