Off the Beaten Path  

Visit Tucson Unveils Rebrand that Celebrates Region’s Authenticity

By Dave Perry

Visit Tucson has wrapped itself around a new logo, complete with a saguaro, a snake and a stylized font suggesting the singularity of this place.

But a logo is not a brand, emphasized Felipe Garcia, Visit Tucson president and CEO.

Think of the logo as Tucson’s “visual marker,” he said. It represents the warm tortilla wrapping a burrito, the tangy mayo on a Sonoran dog, the whitewash of Mission San Xavier del Bac, the fall hues of Marshall Gulch on Mount Lemmon, the dark skies, the bright stars and the painted faces of the All Souls Procession.

“The brand is what’s inside,” Garcia told the crowd at Visit Tucson’s annual meeting in October, where the rebrand was unveiled. “It’s what people think about you, and your company, when you leave the room.”

Brand is more about attitude than assets, consultant and MMGY Global brand strategist Stewart Colovin told the room full of travel industry professionals. A brand “used to be what we have,” said Colovin, an unabashed Tucson fan. “Then it became what can you do, who we are, what makes us us?”

A brand must “resonate with local people,” Colovin said. For more than a year, Colovin and others asked Tucsonans what they think about this city. From those conversations, MMGY Global derived four key insights:

• Pride here is local, earned, and shared.
• The chip on our shoulder isn’t a weakness, it’s our advantage.
• Tucson is a fusion of cultures and place.
• Being different isn’t a rebellion, it’s a tradition.

From those insights, Colovin derived positioning statements. Tucson is Rooted. Grounded. Open. Original. Defiant.

Visit Tucson’s rebrand has adopted a new color palette reflective of the desert – organic browns and greens “inspired by the place.” And it has adopted a new slogan – “Don’t Fit Right In.”

“For those who venture off the beaten path, the desert is calling,” according to Visit Tucson. “Come join us, and don’t fit right in.”

It’s a message of inclusivity, said Lee McLaughlin, VP of marketing for Visit Tucson. “It’s intended to make Tucson stand out as a welcoming destination that says, ‘this place is different.’”

When visitors have what Mayor Regina Romero called “a compelling, authentic, unscripted experience,” they stay longer, spend more money, and explore, Colovin said.

This is Visit Tucson’s first rebrand in more than a decade. It has freed itself from “Free Yourself,” which had been an important message especially during the pandemic. “It put the city of Tucson and our region on the map,” Romero said.

According to Visit Tucson’s 2024-25 annual report, its travel and tourism promotion generated $25 for every $1 invested. Its total impact on tourism and travel was estimated at $332 million. In 2024, Pima County and Southern Arizona welcomed 6.1 million visitors. Nearly 23,000 people worked in travel-related jobs. Local tax receipts from travel reached $81.6 million.

But now is the right time, Romero said, to revitalize the brand, “to look at our future, to break through the noise, to distinguish ourselves from every other area in the world.”

“This new brand tells a more authentic story about who we are and what makes Tucson special,” Garcia said. “It’s designed to create pride at home and spark curiosity among potential visitors.” 

Fresh marketing campaigns, digital platforms and visitor materials are being rolled out. Visit Tucson is “getting incredible reach for the brand, right out of the gate,” McLaughlin said.

The same month as the rebrand unveiling, famous Tucsonan Savannah Guthrie, co-anchor of NBC’s Today, returned to her hometown to film promotional videos. GoPro, the wearable action camera company with a substantial social media network, brought its top adventure creators to Tucson to film what McLaughlin called “wild, extreme stuff.”

And McLaughlin told the audience Visit Tucson was headed to Chicago for mid-November events with plans to wrap a Brown line passenger train with the new Tucson logo. “It’s a perfect time to take our message and this brand to that city” – one of Tucson’s biggest winter markets, he said. “We can show them Tucson is a welcoming place.”

Romero, McLaughlin and Garcia share a common excitement about Tucson’s new brand.

“This new identity is not Visit Tucson’s brand – it is Tucson’s brand,” Garcia said. “It is the common ground where tourism, economic development, government, and education meet.”

“Each and every one of you is a partner,” Romero told the crowd. With a handshake and a smile, “every hospitality worker is an investment in this brand.” 

“This is just the beginning,” McLaughlin said. “We’re really excited for this next chapter.”             

Pictured above – Courtesy Visit Tucson