Bad Bunny’s 31-show residency in Puerto Rico brought a major windfall to the island. The concerts injected nearly $400 million into the local economy, according to Wells Fargo.
The singer’s shows, which ran during Puerto Rico’s off-season months, were initially expected to generate $200 million. However, Wells Fargo told CNBC the sold-out run ended up nearly doubling that figure.
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Bad Bunny encouraged fans to travel to him for the residency and his upcoming world tour, which will visit 19 countries but skip the U.S. entirely. The residency also helped Puerto Rico’s tourism during months when the island usually sees fewer visitors.
“The Bad Bunny experience likely offset all, if not more, of the typical 3Q seasonality for island deposits, providing upside potential for larger balance sheets, and ultimately EPS [earnings per share],” Wells Fargo analyst Timur Braziler told CNBC.
Why Bad Bunny’s skipping the US
In an interview with i-D Magazine earlier this month, Bad Bunny confirmed that he was avoiding the U.S. because of mass deportations of Latinos.
“There were many reasons why I didn’t show up in the U.S., and none of them were out of hate — I’ve performed there many times. All of [the shows] have been successful,” he told i-D. “But there was the issue of — like, f—-g ICE could be outside [my concert]. And it’s something that we were talking about and very concerned about.”
He added that fans should take the opportunity to see him in countries and cities he does not visit often.
Fans are willing to travel
Some fans are doing exactly that. Axios reports that the top five U.S. cities with the most people planning to travel for his world tour are New York, Miami, Los Angeles, Chicago and Orlando.
Bad Bunny’s world tour kicks off in November in the Dominican Republic. Before then, he will host the season premiere of “Saturday Night Live” on Oct. 4.
Diane Duenez (Managing Weekend Editor),
Shianne DeLeon (Video Editor),
and Drew Pittock (Digital Producer)
contributed to this report.