Mrs. Altieri, we'd like you to tell us about your professional career in the world of tourism. How was your debut? Did you always want to be a part of it or this is something that just came knocking on your door?

I've always been bonded to the realm of hotels from the word go in my career, and this is a world that suits me down to the ground, make no mistakes about it. After I graduated from the hotel training school in Puerto Rico –at the University of Cornell with a degree in hotel management- I started working at the Condado Plaza resort. There I kind of served in different jobs for about 12 years until I landed as sales manageress. In 1993, I switched to the Incentive Groups Division for the Tourism Company until 1995 when I was appointed director in Europe for the Puerto Rico Convention Bureau, a non-profitable organization specialized in promoting Puerto Rico as a host destination for meetings, conventions, tradeshows, fairs and incentive groups. In January 2001, I was moved up to director in Europe for the Puerto Rico Tourism Company and the Puerto Rico Convention Bureau.

How long did it take to make Puerto Rico a host ground for congresses and incentives good enough for the European market?

Something people in Europe don't know is that the market of congress, convention and incentive tourism is all but new for Puerto Rico. For over 35 years, the Puerto Rico Convention Bureau has been advertising congresses and taking events to our island nation. For Spaniards, Puerto Rico has been an ideal location due to the cultural ties that bond us together. Lots of Spanish-based incentive groups have come to our country.

The new San Juan Conference Center will be completed in 2004, according to some forecasts. What does this kind of congress and incentive tourism mean to Puerto Rico?

The building of this new Conference Center will undoubtedly help us lure more congresses and conventions from Europe and Latin America. We're interested in attracting 3,000-plus-people conventions and at the same time give the national economy a shot in the arm. The government has earmarked $372 million for the construction of the new center and the works should be completed by the summer of 2004. The total surface for the first phase is 54,000 square meters. The District of the Puerto Rico Conference Center will be outfitted with cutting-edge infrastructure and the new center will take us all the way up to the number one spot in this kind of market.

How many Spanish people or companies could host congresses in Puerto Rico each year?

Spain is one major sender of congresses and conventions, and its potentials are enormous. As to the number of companies, I can tell you they've been growing with each passing year and prospects for the future are looking good.

When these people go to those places, to Puerto Rico in this particular case, do they use the two types of tourism, I mean, vacations and incentives?

Yes, most congresses and conventions usually blend seminars, expositions and exhibits with other activities for the sake of the attendants' spare time and entertainment. This is the right time for them to go touring Old San Juan and Yunque (The Anvil). They enjoy day in and day out the good Puerto Rican cuisine. Even in some of these seminars and congresses, attendants are offered a theme night for them to watch a folkloric show and get in closer contact with the cultural image our island nation has to offer.

What are the top-priority markets for Puerto Rico today?

We've set up a number of major markets since each and every one of them has features of its own. In the case of Europe, we're zeroing in on Spain, followed by Germany and the U.K. We've opened an information center in France. As far as Latin America is concerned, our highest appraisal goes to Mexico and other destinations like Venezuela and Argentina, traditionally two of the most productive markets for our island nation. The English-speaking market is equally important for Puerto Rico.

Do you have any new marketing and PR strategies in store this year in order to promote and showcase Puerto Rico in the European market?

We're breaking into a new publicity campaign and in coming months we're going to lay bare a new array of communication, marketing and PR strategies to further showcase the island and put it on the international market map.

Has the lack of language barriers been a key element for Puerto Rico to have Spanish promotions?

We speak the same language and everything related to culture and history is key. What do Spaniards look for when they go out? Apart from beaches, stores, cuisine and nightlife, they also pursue culture. And Puerto Rico offers them all that.

What are the premiere attractions Puerto Rico offers tourists?

Puerto Rico is a perfect fudge blend of genuinely flavored Caribbean and top-notch facilities. Only a handful of places in the world can provide both things. In Puerto Rico, anybody can feel the Caribbean, its bright light, its people, its flavor surrounded by the best quality and all the resources in the hands of visitors.

We'd like to ask you a few questions on more personal matters, especially from the standpoint of a renowned woman within the Caribbean's tourist industry. How do you take your female condition to your career?

The fact that I'm a woman has never conditioned my career. Both my female peers and me have always been respected. I think what truly counts is not if you're a man or a woman, but how professional you are. That's the heart of the matter: professionalism.

As to other colleagues of yours who could be jealous for having a woman above them or holding a responsibility in this particular field, how do you relate with these people?

I don't think I've ever brought out those feeling in someone around me, maybe because I usually downplay that kind of feeling. I've met very interesting people in the course of both my career and my personal life, and those are the memories I hold dearly. If someone is jealous because I'm a woman, I'll never give a whit about it.

Do you agree female sensitivity and creativeness are also good virtues for a woman to be an executive and be measured up to men, or even to make a male peer improve in this walk of life.

I believe sensitivity and creativeness do not belong to one gender specifically and both are virtues that enrich people, men and women alike. What I do is try to have great people around me all the time, great professionals that make up great teams and achieve their goals. I never waste my time measuring myself up to anybody else, neither man nor woman. It seems to me that's a waste of time and energy.

How do you combine your job in the tourist industry with your personal and social life, as well as with your family?

Like anybody else in a professional career: doing the best I can. I simply try to find some middle ground between both things as satisfactorily as I can. I count on the great support my husband gives me, as well as my family and friends, and as I said, I surround myself with good professionals so that we can put together a great team in which every member does his or her share, and in which goals and illusions are shared, too, regardless of the fact that I'll always bear the brunt of it all.

Do you remember any anecdote or curious event that ever occurred to you since you began working in the tourism domain?

It's been over 22 years ago when Mr. Hugh Andrews, former director and president of the Condado Plaza, called me to his office. I'd been working in the hotel for a couple of years. We talked about my goals and I told him I'd like to be sitting in his chair. He told me it was good for me to be that ambitious. Eight years later I was still working in that same hotel and I'd been promoted to sales manageress. An employee walked into my office one day pulling a chair and told me Mr. Andrews was sending me that chair. I couldn't believe my eyes; that was exactly the same chair he was sitting in the day we'd had that conversation. I immediately called Mr. Andrews to thank him for remembering our conversation and I quipped that it was not the chair what I wanted, but his post as general manager.