TUCSON, Ariz. — Despite the economy suffering throughout the pandemic, the destination marketing organization for Southern Arizona and Tucson, Visit Tucson has continued to make an impact.
Visit Tucson's most recent annual report for 2019-2020 shows the organization is responsible for bringing in more than $200 million this year. That breaks down to about $22 extra for every one dollar invested in Visit Tucson.
While those numbers are far better than some other tourism projections, Visit Tucson is reporting their economic impact is 14% lower than last year.
"The downside, of course, you know, is, is COVID — that you know once a little bit of February and March hit everything bottomed out, right? People just weren't coming here. Meetings were canceling left and right, sporting events, leisure travel everything sort of just went down from there. So, the really good thing is that all that considered we still generated $22 for every dollar that was invested in Visit Tucson," Senior Director of Communications Dan Gibson said.
Visit Tucson now shifting gears to tackle the challenges of the current year. They're targeting 'stay-cationers,' and in the near future will target out-of-state travelers looking to escape the cold.
Economic impact was calculated using spending data for visitors who came to Tucson as a result of Visit Tucson’s efforts. It includes domestic leisure, meeting and sports visitors, Mexico visitors who booked their hotel rooms through VamosaTucson.com, TV, movie, and commercial productions aided by Film Tucson, and earned media value generated through our public relations efforts.
