Spanish esports organisation Giants Gaming has partnered with Spanish regional government Junta de Andalucía to promote the tourist destination during VALORANT Champions 2023.
Giants’ players will wear Andalucía branding on their jerseys during the event in Los Angeles. Moreover, the two parties will also work on digital and in-person activations during the next year.
This is not the first time the Spanish organisation has partnered with a regional tourist destination to help promote Spanish tourism abroad. Earlier this year, Giants partnered with Costa del Sol, a Spanish tourist region, and featured its branding on their jerseys. Costa del Sol is actually located in the province of Andalucía.
Giants Gaming is based in Malaga, Andalucía, and fields teams in VALORANT, League of Legends, and fighting games.
The partnership was signed by the Minister of Tourism, Culture, and Sport of the Junta de Andalucía, Arturo Bernal, and the owners of Giants, José Ramón Díaz and Virginia Calvo.
Giants noted that it is currently the only esports brand in Europe actively promoting regional tourism and that the partnership with the regional government reinforces Giants’ commitment to the organisation’s home region.
The deal comes just days after game developer Riot Games announced its own partnership with Andalucía which saw it become a sponsor of VALORANT Champions.
Junta de Andalucía joins a growing list of Giants Gaming commercial partners, such as KitKat, Burger King and Maggi FUSIAN.
VALORANT Champions is the largest tournament in the game’s esports ecosystem. Giants qualified for the event via a last-chance qualifier in July 2023. Teams will compete for the event’s $2.25m (~£1.76m) prize pool.
The Minister of Tourism, Culture, and Sport of the Junta de Andalucía, Arturo Bernal, commented on the partnership: “Our region is once again at the forefront of tourism promotion, as a pioneering destination that is making progress in new media to reach a target audience that is difficult to reach through conventional media.
“Esports will help Andalucía to capture the attention of a young, modern and technologically active audience in the channels that most interest the ‘Gen Z’, to establish a real connection with potential tourists in the short and medium term.”
