Imagine being asked to transform the tourism fortunes of a country surrounded by geopolitical instability. That is precisely the challenge that Finn Partners tourism faced with the Jordan Tourism Board.
The results of that campaign are as measurable as they are remarkable.
This case study is not a story about clever PR stunts or viral social content.
It is a story about what strategic, long-term Finn Partners tourism communications can achieve when built around real business objectives, executed over years, and measured against verifiable outcomes.
If you are a tourism board, destination management organisation, or hospitality brand weighing whether communications investment delivers genuine ROI, the Finn Partners tourism Jordan story provides an evidence-based answer.
Who Is Finn Partners?
Before examining the campaign, understanding the Finn Partners agency itself is essential.
Finn Partners is a global independent marketing and communications agency founded in 2011 by CEO Peter Finn.
Based in New York City, the agency has grown from approximately $24 million in fees at its founding to nearly $200 million in global revenue by 2024.
This is according to PRWeek’s Agency Business Report 2025, which reported global revenue of $199.8 million in 2024.
The agency currently employs more than 1,300 people globally across offices in North America, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.
It has grown significantly through strategic acquisitions, including Hawkins International (luxury travel), Rice Communications (Singapore), and Claudine Colin Communication (French arts PR), among others.
Finn Partners’ travel and tourism practice is one of its most established specialties.
Additionally, the Finn Partners tourism team was appointed as the Global Agency for the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) to lead communications for the launch of the “Together in Travel” global community.
Key Finn Partners Facts
- Founded: 2011, New York City
- CEO: Peter Finn
- 2024 global revenue: $199.8 million (PRWeek Agency Business Report 2025)
- Employees: 1,300+ globally
- Travel clients: Countries, states, cities, luxury hotel groups, cruise lines, airlines, tour operators
- Past recognition: 2015 Midsize Agency of the Year (Holmes Report), 2013 Best Agency to Work For (Holmes Report)
- Recent win: Sonoma County Tourism (January 2026), Palladium Hotel Group (global corporate PR)
The Challenge: Repositioning Jordan in a Turbulent Region
The Finn Partners tourism Jordan assignment began in 2000 and continues to the present day, making it one of the longest-running tourism PR relationships on record for any global agency.
Jordan’s challenge was precise and difficult.
The country had world-class tourism assets, including Petra, Wadi Rum, the Dead Sea, and Aqaba.
However, the regional instability, limited airlift into the country, and a concentration of visitors in a narrow geographic corridor meant that Jordan’s tourism economy was both under-performing and structurally vulnerable.
The Jordan Tourism Board needed a communications partner that could do three interconnected things simultaneously.
First, it needed to lobby governments and airlines to improve air access.
Second, it needed to attract major hotel investment.
Third, it needed to grow the number of UK and international visitors year on year, despite a regional context that made casual travel decisions harder.
Consequently, the strategy had to work at multiple levels, connecting aviation policy, hotel industry relationships, film industry partnerships, and consumer media coverage into a single coordinated push.
The Finn Partners Tourism Strategy: What They Did
The Finn Partners tourism team’s approach to the Jordan campaign reveals several strategic decisions worth examining closely, because each one addresses a specific business barrier rather than a communications preference.
Lobbying for Airlift
The first and most foundational step in the Finn Partners tourism strategy was solving the airlift problem. Without accessible, affordable flight routes, all the media coverage in the world would not convert into visitors.
Finn Partners lobbied the UK Government on Airline Passenger Duty restrictions, a tax that directly affects the economics of long-haul routes.
The agency also engaged directly with airlines to make the commercial case for new routes into Jordan.
The result was that EasyJet introduced its first-ever flight route into Aqaba, Jordan, in 2018. That route was then doubled for the 2019 and 2020 seasons. New air access is not a PR metric.
It is a business infrastructure outcome, achieved through communications and advocacy strategy.
Film Tourism and Earned Media at Scale
The Finn Partners tourism team identified a significant opportunity to use Jordan’s dramatic landscapes for blockbuster film productions. This generated multi-million dollar investments in film tourism and transformed Jordan’s global profile in the process.
Working in partnership with Jordan’s Royal Film Commission, Finn Partners helped facilitate major film productions in Jordan, including Aladdin, The Martian, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and The Rise of Skywalker.
Each production generated enormous global media coverage that showcased Jordan’s landscapes and positioned the country as an aspirational destination for an entirely new audience.
Film tourism, when executed correctly, delivers earned media at a scale that no paid campaign can replicate.
The Finn Partners tourism Jordan film strategy demonstrates that PR’s value is not only in press releases and journalist trips.
It is in repositioning a destination’s entire cultural story.
Hotel Investment Attraction
A destination without sufficient accommodation cannot grow visitor numbers sustainably.
The Finn Partners tourism team recognised this and worked to attract major hotel investment to Jordan alongside its media and advocacy work.
The outcome was significant.
Major hotel groups Hyatt, Jumeirah, Starwood Hotels and Resorts, and The Ritz-Carlton collectively opened nine five-star properties in late 2017 and throughout 2018.
That level of hotel development does not happen without sustained stakeholder communications, confidence-building among investors, and a credible destination narrative that makes the investment decision defensible.
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Verified Outcomes From the Finn Partners Tourism Jordan Campaign
The Finn Partners tourism Jordan campaign produced outcomes that are specific, verifiable, and directly connected to the strategic investments made.
UK Visitor Growth: Welcoming more British travellers than ever before in 2018, Jordan saw visitor numbers from the UK increase by 21% year on year.
In 2019, the country recorded a further 19% increase in UK visitors compared to 2018. Those two years of consecutive double-digit growth represent a sustained trend, not an anomaly.
New Air Routes: EasyJet’s first Aqaba route, introduced in 2018 and doubled for subsequent seasons, created affordable, direct access that directly supported the visitor growth numbers above.
Nine Five-Star Hotels: The hotel investment attracted during the campaign period added significant accommodation capacity and raised Jordan’s luxury hospitality profile in international travel media simultaneously.
Film Tourism: The Finn Partners tourism film partnership with Jordan’s Royal Film Commission generated multi-million dollar production investments in the country over multiple years. Each production created a cascade of earned media coverage that positioned Jordan to hundreds of millions of viewers globally.
These outcomes collectively represent the kind of ROI that transforms tourism strategy conversations.
The case demonstrates that Finn Partners’ tourism communications is not measured in impressions. It is measured in flights, hotel rooms, visitor numbers, and economic impact.
The $50 Million Context: What PR ROI Means for Tourism Brands
The headline of this article references $50 million in tourism campaign ROI.
This figure reflects the documented economic value generated through long-term Finn Partners tourism destination PR work.
These include the Thread Group technology case study and the broader pattern of value creation that Finn Partners’ destination and travel campaigns have produced for clients over time.
For Jordan specifically, the combination of new airlift routes, nine five-star hotel openings, film production income, and 21% visitor growth in a single year represents a scale of economic impact that far exceeds any realistic PR retainer investment.
This is the fundamental value proposition of Finn Partners tourism as an agency.
The firm is not selling media coverage. It is selling destination transformation, measured in visitors, investment, and economic activity.
Lessons for Tourism Boards and Destination Brands
The Finn Partners tourism Jordan campaign offers practical lessons for any tourism board, regional government, or hospitality brand considering a serious PR and communications investment.
1. Long-term commitment compounds results. Finn Partners has worked with Jordan since 2000. The 2018 and 2019 visitor growth numbers did not happen overnight. They happened because two decades of relationship-building, narrative development, and strategic advocacy created the conditions for sustainable growth.
2. Airlift is a communications problem as much as a commercial one. The EasyJet route into Aqaba was secured, in part, through lobbying and government engagement. Your Finn Partners tourism strategy should include aviation advocacy if air access is a barrier to growth.
3. Film and media partnerships create earned attention at scale. The Jordan film productions for Star Wars, Aladdin, and The Martian generated global media coverage that positioned Jordan to audiences who had never seen a tourism advertisement. Identifying and facilitating these kinds of cultural partnerships requires creative strategic thinking, not just press release writing.
4. Investor relations and media relations are connected. The Finn Partners tourism team recognised that hotel investment and visitor growth reinforce each other. More hotel capacity attracts more visitors. More visitors attract more hotel investment. A communications strategy that supports both simultaneously is far more powerful than one focused on either alone.
5. Measure outcomes, not outputs. Coverage volume is not a strategy. Visitor growth, hotel investment, and new air routes are strategies. The Finn Partners tourism Jordan campaign is compelling precisely because it is measured in verifiable business outcomes.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Finn Partners known for in tourism PR? Finn Partners is one of the world’s most experienced tourism PR agencies, with destination clients including Jordan, Panama, Sonoma County, and many more. The firm is also the appointed Global Agency for the World Travel and Tourism Council. Its Finn Partners tourism practice combines media relations, film tourism facilitation, airlift advocacy, hotel investment attraction, and influencer marketing.
How long has Finn Partners worked with Jordan? The Finn Partners tourism relationship with the Jordan Tourism Board began in 2000, making it a partnership of over two decades. The campaign produced 21% UK visitor growth in 2018 and a further 19% growth in 2019.
What was the outcome of the Finn Partners Jordan campaign? Key outcomes include EasyJet’s first Aqaba flight route (introduced in 2018, doubled for 2019 and 2020), nine five-star hotel openings by Hyatt, Jumeirah, Starwood, and The Ritz-Carlton, and consecutive years of double-digit UK visitor growth.
What is Finn Partners’ global revenue? Finn Partners reported global revenue of $199.8 million in 2024, according to PRWeek’s Agency Business Report 2025. The agency was founded in 2011 with approximately $24 million in fees and has grown consistently through organic growth and strategic acquisitions.
Is Finn Partners good for tourism brands? Yes. The Finn Partners tourism practice is one of the most established destination PR capabilities globally, with clients ranging from national tourism boards to luxury hotel groups, cruise lines, and regional destinations. The Jordan case study demonstrates measurable long-term ROI from sustained communications investment.
Does Finn Partners work with luxury hospitality brands? Yes. The Finn Partners tourism team’s luxury division, FINN LUXE, serves boutique hotels, private islands, safari operators, cruise companies, and private aviation clients, in addition to destination management organisations.
What the Finn Partners Tourism Campaign Teaches Us
The Finn Partners tourism Jordan case is one of the clearest proofs in the PR industry that strategic communications, sustained over time and measured against real business outcomes, deliver genuine economic value.
A 21% increase in UK visitors. Nine five-star hotels. EasyJet’s first Aqaba route. Multi-million dollar film productions at iconic Jordanian locations.
They are destination transformation outcomes, produced by a communications strategy that went beyond press releases and journalist trips.
For tourism boards and hospitality brands evaluating whether a serious PR investment is justified, the Finn Partners tourism Jordan story provides a compelling answer.
When the strategy is long-term, multi-layered, and measured against the business outcomes that actually matter.
The question for your organisation is not whether communications can deliver ROI for tourism brands.
The Finn Partners tourism evidence shows it can. The question is whether you have the strategic patience and the right agency partner to build that value over time.