Last updated: 1:30 PM ET, Thu December 18, 2025
‘Our end goal is to uplift the entire economy,’ said Discover Puerto Rico Chief Marketing Officer Storm Tussey (Photo Credit: Discover Puerto Rico)
Storm Tussey is the newly appointed chief marketing officer at Discover Puerto Rico, the Caribbean nation’s destination marketing agency.
She brings more than 15 years of experience in international marketing and brand strategy to her new role.
Before joining Discover Puerto Rico, Tussey held senior leadership roles at companies including IAAPA, Hurtigruten, LEGO, Verizon, and Webroot. She has a proven track record of leading successful global campaigns, digital transformations, and implementing customer-centric innovations.
Having lived in several countries, Tussey has a deep appreciation for cultural diversity and local authenticity and is eager to embrace the “Live Boricua” spirit, aiming to elevate Puerto Rico’s vibrant culture on the world stage.
Her mission is to drive brand growth and foster meaningful customer engagement, supporting Puerto Rico’s ongoing success as a premier tourism destination. Her commitment to excellence and visionary approach provide Discover Puerto Rico with an ideal leader.
TravelPulse talked with Tussey in late November to learn how she was proceeding in her new role.
TP: How do you approach destination marketing for Puerto Rico?
ST: We’re really focused in that we become hypersensitive in our activities so we can highlight the types of people that we’re trying to get to come to the island around the benefits of the island.
So we’re focusing on unique selling propositions. We’re doing a lot with food, so a lot of farm-to-table, a lot of local recipes, which we’re really grateful for, a lot of gastronomy around the drinks as well. We’ve been winning awards for cocktails, so we’ll continue to focus on that. And then we’ll look for ways to spotlight the music scene a little more. Obviously, Bad Bunny is just a start; we’ve got Rauw Alejandro and so many others coming to make sure visitors know they can celebrate the music just as much as the food and drinks.
TP: What are you doing to manage the flow of visitors while they’re on the island?
ST: We continue to work on dispersing people around the island, because our end goal is to uplift the entire economy. We want to make sure that we are promoting small businesses so we can sort of make it a circular economy where the money stays in Puerto Rico and continues to lift the Puerto Rican people.
Puerto Rico is the only Caribbean island where it’s safe to road trip around the whole island. So, as part of our dispersion strategy, we do want to make sure that we highlight the local hot spots and the good partners that we think offer the best of the best experiences on the island.
We’ve had a five percent increase in traffic to the island, nine percent growth in hotel stays, so we want to help grow that in a holistic fashion, so it helps the whole island. So it’s a little different strategy from what we’ve done in the past, but we’re excited about it.
TP: What events are coming up for Puerto Rico?
ST: We have the Fifth Element [underground music] festival and, of course, San Sebastian. Who doesn’t want to come to Puerto Rico for San Sebastian? Then we go into the World Baseball Classic and then Miss Universe, so we’ve got some key events that are going throughout the year, not counting all of the live music events we’ll have and all of the concerts. We’ll have a pretty aggressive concert schedule, giving people a reason to come.
Site of the new Four Seasons Resort and Private Residences Puerto Rico on Bahia Beach, Rio Grande. (Photo Credit: Four Seasons)
TP: What’s new on Puerto Rico’s hotel scene?
ST: We have the Four Seasons hotel opening; it’s the first Four Seasons in the Caribbean, so it’s fantastic. It’s the beginning of the growth of luxury. Obviously, we have several luxury resorts already and they’re continuing to build them. If you look at the developers’ schedule, in the next year and a half, we’ll have at least three more luxury resorts opening on the island. It just shows how we have something for every type of traveler. We have the ultra luxury, the boutique hotels, and more traditional hotels.
TP: Luxury standards can sometimes impact a hotel’s orientation. How is Discover Puerto Rico working to help member properties maintain their integrity?
ST: I think that the way we are approaching luxury is a bit different from the other islands. While we’re going for luxury, we are still holding true to Puerto Rico’s culture, so we are working with local artists to make sure the art comes from Puerto Rico, using different designers who also come from Puerto Rico, and they’re using as many local goods as possible. So when people come in, they know they’re getting ultra luxury, but they’re getting it with a Puerto Rican flair.
TP: How else are you working with hotels?
ST: On our website, we have our promotional page where we’re highlighting all the different promotions that the hotels are putting on for travelers.
And then we’re working on them on a consistent schedule to add more Puerto Rican experiences into their activities so that way when people do come to Puerto Rico they don’t just get a taste the food and the spirits but they also get a chance to have a engaged experience where they actually are hands on learning about Puerto Rican culture and learning about Puerto Rican tradition.
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