Visit Tucson Launches New Brand Through a GoPro Creator Partnership

About Visit Tucson and the Travel & Tourism Landscape

Like most destination marketing organizations (DMOs), Visit Tucson operates in a highly competitive travel and tourism environment where destinations must work harder to stand out across digital, social, and discovery-driven platforms.

As traveler behavior continues to shift toward creator-led inspiration and immersive visual storytelling, Visit Tucson sought new ways to remain visible, relevant, and compelling to modern audiences.

The Destination Marketing Challenge

Visit Tucson was facing a familiar challenge across the travel industry. Traditional destination marketing tactics were no longer delivering the level of engagement needed to cut through a crowded marketplace.

At the same time, the organization was in the midst of a destination rebrand, creating an opportunity to tell Tucson’s story in a more authentic and differentiated way. The challenge was to generate high-impact content and storytelling that reflected real experiences and resonated with how travelers now discover destinations, without relying on standard promotional messaging.

Identifying a Partner-Led Solution

As competition for traveler attention intensified, Visit Tucson recognized the need for an approach that combined credibility, creativity, and scale. Through its partnership with MediaOne, Visit Tucson identified the GoPro x Destination Partnership Program as a way to align with a global brand known for immersive, experience-driven storytelling.

Rather than purchasing exposure and impressions, the opportunity centered on collaboration, pairing Tucson’s destination narrative with GoPro’s creator ecosystem and global audience to elevate reach and relevance beyond traditional channels.

Strategy: Creator-Led Destination Storytelling at Scale

MediaOne approached the opportunity through a strategic partnership lens, not a single-campaign mindset. The goal was to build a framework that prioritized authenticity, long-term value, and brand alignment.

The strategy focused on:

• Showcasing Tucson through real creator perspectives and lived experiences

• Leveraging GoPro’s global creator network to highlight the destination’s landscapes, culture, and sense of place

• Extending the value of creator content through coordinated amplification across social, editorial, and owned channels

• Creating a repeatable partnership model that could support Visit Tucson’s long-term marketing goals

By anchoring the program in authentic storytelling, the partnership aligned with how modern travelers explore, evaluate, and engage with destinations.

Campaign Execution and Activation

The partnership came together at a pivotal moment. Visit Tucson’s rebrand efforts, GoPro’s launch of a new 360 camera, and the timing of a curated creator experience aligned for an October 2025 activation.

Creators traveled to Tucson to capture immersive footage across a range of experiences, producing a diverse library of visual content. That content was distributed through creator social channels, GoPro-owned platforms, supporting editorial coverage, and email placements to extend reach and engagement.

“Their visit created a moment that perfectly encapsulated the kind of quirky, engaged energy we wanted to promote,” said J. Felipe Garcia, President & CEO of Visit Tucson.

The program was designed to deliver sustained visibility rather than a short-lived promotional spike as the Visit Tucson team also incorporated the video and photography assets into future marketing campaigns.

Destination Marketing Results and Performance

The GoPro x Destination Partnership Program delivered measurable engagement across digital channels, supported by both organic and amplified distribution.

Results included:

• 1.76 million emails delivered through a standalone Tucson email placement, with a 0.26% click-through rate, the highest-performing secondary click directing users to the Biosphere experience

• TikTok content generating 39,000 views and 967 engagements

• Instagram content surpassing 504,000 views and 10,000 engagements

• A featured article on The Current receiving 1,591 views with an average read time of 3 minutes and 2 seconds, signaling strong audience attention

Beyond individual hard metrics, Visit Tucson gained a robust collection of immersive creative assets and a scalable storytelling framework supported by partner credibility and creator trust.

Long-Term Impact for Visit Tucson

Through its partnership with GoPro, Visit Tucson moved beyond traditional destination marketing and adopted a creator-first, experience-driven approach to discovery.

The collaboration delivered more than campaign performance. It established a repeatable model for how Visit Tucson can continue to engage modern travelers through authentic storytelling, strategic partnerships, and sustained visibility across the channels where destination inspiration now happens.