Visit Tucson

It started with the campy Tucson Sunshine Climate Club, which was founded in 1922 and served as a tourism promotion agency until the 1960s. The club conducted an annual fundraising campaign to raise money, which was spent on advertising in national magazines touting Tucson’s climate and attractions. The ads often featured high school girls in shorts and boots or outfits made out of real cactus. The club also met trains and welcomed new arrivals to town. Notable citizen Roy P. Drachman served as the club’s general manager from 1939 to 1945. Tucson Sunshine Climate Club would eventually become part of the Tucson Chamber of Commerce, operating as a stand-alone committee called “Caballeros del Sol.” In the early 1980s, the Chamber spun off the tourism promotion committee and Metropolitan Tucson Convention & Visitors Bureau was formed, operating today as Visit Tucson.

PHOTO COURTESY VISIT TUCSON