Three towns ask the Tourism Company to take over the Río Camuy Cave Park

One project, three towns

The three mayors agreed on the plan, which they call "Un Proyecto, 3 Pueblos", at a meeting on October 8 and presented it at a press conference at the Punta Maracayo resort in Hatillo, El Vocero reported. Each municipal legislature approved its town's resolution, and the resolutions go to the governor and the Legislative Assembly, according to Telemundo Puerto Rico, which also reported that the senator for the Arecibo district backed the plan.

Under the proposal, $6 from each basic admission ticket would go to the towns, $2 each, and the three would split the municipal licence revenue and the municipal share of the sales and use tax the park generates. In return each town would maintain the green areas of road PR-129 in its jurisdiction. The plan asks for updated technical, environmental and financial studies, and it contemplates ecotourism lodging, more concessions and new attractions compatible with conservation. Unskilled jobs at the park would be reserved for residents of the three towns, El Vocero reported.

Against earlier advice, and against the agency

A 2023 study by the Public-Private Partnerships Authority advised against a conventional partnership for the park because of its limited financial information and scale, and recommended instead that the DRNA hire a private operator for five to ten years, El Vocero reported. In October 2025 the head of the agency ruled out both a partnership and municipal management. That same month the mayors of Hatillo and Lares had pushed an intermunicipal consortium and opposed Camuy taking sole control; the joint resolutions replace that dispute.

On Monday, October 19, El Vocero reported that the president of the Association of Mayors backed the three towns, and that the DRNA secretary had rejected the transfer and said the government is close to reopening the park, without giving a date. The association's president said the park drew 500 to 1,500 visitors a day before it closed, about three quarters of them tourists, and noted that it received federal Land and Water Conservation Fund money, so any transfer must satisfy federal conditions.

Where visitors would stay

The three towns already carry a short-term rental market. As of October 20, 2026, RED Atlas counts 72 active short-term rentals in Camuy from 50 hosts at a median $168 a night, 93 in Hatillo from 62 hosts at $172, and 47 in Lares from 22 hosts at $150.

Hotel filings in the permit record are small and early. A 22-room Panorámica Suites Hotel on PR-493 in Hatillo received a use recommendation on August 9, 2026, and a 12-room Hotel Libertad in Lares had its single permit approved on January 13, 2026. The Punta Maracayo resort, the municipal hotel in Hatillo where the mayors spoke, has single-permit filings for 25 rooms that are incomplete or withdrawn. In Camuy, a guest house in Membrillo is under correction, a house on PR-2 received a use recommendation for short-term rental on June 26, 2026, and another short-term rental in the town centre filed for a single permit on October 19.