page_title: Porta Caribe
section_title: Inventory
hierarchical_section_title: Porta Caribe / Inventory
caption_attribution_description: Area recreativa de La Guancha, Playa de Ponce, Puerto Rico.
context_page_description: Porta Caribe is a tourism region in southern Puerto Rico. It was established in 2003 by the Puerto Rico Tourism Company, an agency of the Government of Puerto Rico. When created in 2003 it consisted of 14 municipalities in the south central zone. With the creation of the neighboring Porta Cordillera zone in July 2012, the municipalities of Adjuntas and Jayuya were transferred to the newly created Porta Cordillera zone and Porta Caribe became a 12-municipality tourism region. The name Porta Caribe translates to "Doorway to the Caribbean." Its executive director is Maritza W. Ruiz Cabán.
context_section_description: In 2006, the region already provided the following facilities to launch it as a tourist destination: 
  An international airport, Mercedita Airport, that saw a traffic of 124,774 passengers in 2005
  A cruise ship pier, Port of the Americas
  1,100 hotel rooms (increasing to 1,691 by 2008)
  In addition, the Oficina del Plan de Usos de Terrenos (Office of Land Use Planning) of the Government of Puerto Rico lists 24 officially recognized beaches in the southern region of Puerto Rico. Though by necessity it includes coastal municipalities only, they are all part of the Porta Caribe region.
  As of 17 October 2012, the Porta Caribe zone boasted 61 lodging facilities, 292 restaurants and 328 tourist attractions.
caption: La Guancha facing the Caribbean Sea in Ponce
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