From August 7-13, the Puerto Rico Convention Bureau is celebrating its Ambassador Program Week.
The dedicated week recognizes the efforts of the more than 400 individuals who volunteer their time and leverage their professional relationships to generate meeting and convention business for the Island on behalf of the Bureau.
During the Bureau’s past fiscal year, which ended on June 30, 2011, the Ambassador Program contributed 39 definite group bookings generating 12,080 room nights for a potential economic impact of $6.3 million.
Ambassadors generated more than 35,000 room night leads during the past year. Since the re-launch of the program in 2007, the Ambassador Program has resulted in a contribution of more than $71 million to the local Puerto Rico economy.
On Monday, August 1, a proclamation by the Government of Puerto Rico was issued, recognizing the Bureau’s Ambassador Program for their endeavors and commitment to Puerto Rico.
The proclamation was presented to Distinguished Ambassador Maria Vargas-Capriles and Federico Sánchez, Chairman of the Board of the Puerto Rico Convention Bureau, at the Puerto Rico State Department.
Also as part of the celebration, the Puerto Rico Convention Bureau recognized María Vargas-Capriles, MBA, Assistant Director of the University of Puerto Rico, Resources Center, as the 2011 Distinguished Ambassador.
Since her participation in the Ambassador Program in 2009, Vargas-Capriles is credited for helping secure ten groups to Puerto Rico, including the EPSCOR (Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, a U.S. Federal initiative) Annual Meeting and National Conference; the 2010 International Symposium on Integrated Functionalities; as well as the 2009 NASA Space Grant Consortium.
With a total of 3,570 room nights, her individual efforts have contributed more than $3 million to the Island’s economy.
As this year’s honored Distinguished Ambassador, Ms. Vargas-Capriles had an intimate dinner held in her honor with Bureau Ambassador Executives and two former Distinguished Ambassador recipients including Carlos Lazaro-Leon, who was the Bureau’s first Distinguished Ambassador in 2008 and Pedro Lorenzo, who received the honor in 2010.
