Puerto Rico’s recent tourism boom is often presented as a story of recovery from a two-decade-long economic and fiscal crisis. Accordingly, after years marked by austerity, hurricanes, and the COVID-19 pandemic, the archipelago has reemerged as a desirable destination.

Luxury hotels, gated communities, and large-scale tourism developments are expanding, reshaping coastal towns such as Cabo Rojo, Dorado, and Fajardo through projects like Esencia and Moncayo. Public agencies and industry actors, including Discover Puerto Rico, consistently frame tourism as a cornerstone of economic renewal. The image is familiar across the Caribbean: paradisiacal beaches paired with the promise of being open for business.

This narrative obscures a deeper reconfiguration of tourism policy in Puerto Rico in ways that extend beyond attracting visitors into a financial and speculative investment sector. At stake is a shift in how development itself is structured, one in which tax incentives and credits tied to tourism increasingly function as financial assets. The economic, legal, and sociopolitical implications of that development are experienced by local communities that have been displaced by luxury megaprojects, as well as by austerity measures and an unequal tax burden.