Puerto Rico Gets Its Own 'Taylor Swift Effect' — Thanks to Bad Bunny

Bad Bunny kicks off his Puerto Rico residency Friday, with a 30-night concert series in San Juan that promises to supercharge the island’s economy.

The Puerto Rican native will perform at the Coliseo de Puerto Rico each weekend between July 11 and September 14.

“As soon as the residency was announced, we saw an immense increase in searches of Puerto Rico in the tourist sector,” said Glorianna Yamin, vice president of marketing for Discover Puerto Rico. “It's unprecedented. We have never experienced an event like this. Thirty concerts is the first ever residency that is going to be happening on the island, but we are extremely excited that Puerto Rico has been put on the map.”

The summer months normally mark the slow season for Puerto Rican tourism, when wet weather and hurricanes dampen demand. But Bad Bunny’s worldwide appeal has packed hotels. Total hotel occupancy for August was 67% higher than the same time in 2024, according to data provider TravelClick.

Bad Bunny is a huge draw for his connection to the island and his support of the local economy. "Shop Local For Bad Bunny's Concert" was one message on a Bad Bunny fan account. Another fan on TikTok was excited by another message: "We're going to be Puerto Rican AF."

Bad Bunny urges fans to buy their outfits from local businesses for his Residency 🇵🇷 🐰 pic.twitter.com/ElHnB7h36L

— Access Bad Bunny (@AccessBadBunny) July 7, 2025

To date, visitors booked over 48,000 nights across 34 hotels throughout the island. Those hotels participated in packaged concert experiences managed by the Live Nation company, Vibee. Alma San Juan, one of the participating hotels, has seen a 40% increase in bookings compared to the same period last year, said Ada Mabel Rivera, Alma’s director of sales and marketing.

Short-term rentals are getting a Bad Bunny bump as well. Since the artist announced his residency in January, Airbnb searches across the island jumped by more than 140% for the concert dates compared to those same dates in 2024, an Airbnb spokesperson said in an email to Skift.

Outside of the U.S., those searches came from Spain, Mexico, Canada, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Chile, France and Ecuador. That spike in international interest corresponds to data from ForwardKeys, which showed flight searches from overseas markets in mid-January were seven times higher than the previous week. Those search volumes continued for weeks after Bad Bunny announced his tour, according to ForwardKeys.

Meanwhile, flight bookings from the U.S.mainland to Puerto Rico between July and September increased by 217% compared to 2024, according to data from Booking.com. The website also showed an 88% increase in accommodation bookings in Puerto Rico for that period.

Though Bad Bunny’s residency has goosed occupancy rates in both hotels and short-term rentals, a closer look at the data shows that the spike doesn’t hit until late July and early August.

That’s because the artist reserved the first nine shows for island residents while the remaining 21 dates were open to fans elsewhere. When those restrictions were lifted, demand for short-term rentals shot up for August and September, according to Jamie Lane, chief economist at AirDNA.

“When we pulled the data a few weeks ago now, it was a 200% increase in demand,” Lane said, adding that the strong booking activity not only hit the concert dates, but throughout the entire week.

Lane has not seen this type of demand with artist residencies in Las Vegas. Instead, he compares the Bad Bunny boost to "The Taylor Swift Effect" from the Eras Tour.

“You track the Taylor Swift concert throughout Europe, you see this effect,” Lane said. “But essentially what we're seeing is the Taylor Swift effect, like every single week for a month and a half all concentrated into a single market.”

Airbnb data shows visitors are not only interested in San Juan, but destinations across the island including Vega Baja, Guaynabo, San Sebastián, Cayey, Manatí and Mayagüez. That’s good news for Yamin, whose organization is pushing visitors to explore cities outside of the capital.

“We're making sure that those visitors that come to the island understand that we have 78 municipalities that they don't have to stay in the San Juan or the metro region, that is where the concert is taking place,” Yamin said. “We want them to understand that Puerto Rico is so much more than that.”

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