Permanency of the Tourism MSME’s in Puerto Rico: A Balance between Traditional and Modern Elements

摘要

Conventional tourism, powered from the 70's with the offer of sun and beach destinations, propelled the creation of MSME’s on tourism and restaurant sector. The Caribbean region, world famous by its beaches, was benefited from it and many of these establishments over thirty years of operations continuing to provide their services. As seen in the area of Grand Tourism, the hotel facilities and services were modernized and acquired new policies. However, there are many small or medium size hotels that support its existence in a simple, classic service. This research aims by applying a semi-structured interview directed to owners and managers to identify indicators that demonstrate how these companies remain. This study is directed to Tourist destinations along Puerto RicoIsland and to identify the relationship that may exist between permanence and management from the perspective of 1970 classic tourism and grand tourism recent or new proposals. Permanency indicators will be employed, including classic hotel management techniques to analyze eight hotel establishments in four tourist sites along the island and through a depth interview directed to a manager of each tourist site to identify those elements that define the preference and intention to return visits in each establishment. The results showed that managers identify elements such as aspects of service, adapting to new technologies and classic tourism management that keep and form a balance with newly acquired items. The permanence in Puerto Rico tourism companies is related to the relationship between 1970s conventional hotel management practices and contemporary practices that integrate different factors of technology and quality, achieving balance without losing the classic essence.