Cabarete, Dominican Republic | June 15–19, 2026

When Expedia partnered with IShowSpeed for his Caribbean tour in April 2026, the internet paid attention. The livestream, 12 hours of island-hopping across Dominica, Guadeloupe, St. Kitts & Nevis, and St. Maarten, generated tens of millions of views across platforms and became one of the most-discussed creator marketing moments of the year. The Dominican Republic stop was the most viewed of the entire tour.

The lesson was loud and clear: bringing the right creators to a Caribbean destination is the most powerful tourism marketing tool in the world right now.

We heard it. And we're acting on it.

Iguana is proud to announce the Cabarete Creator Weekend — June 15–19, 2026, the first curated creator event in the history of the Caribbean, bringing together world-class travel and adventure content creators to experience, document, and share one of the most extraordinary destinations on the planet.

What Is the Cabarete Creator Weekend?

The Cabarete Creator Weekend is a 5-day immersive creator experience built around Cabarete, Dominican Republic, the watersports capital of the Caribbean. Over five days, carefully selected travel and adventure content creators will live, surf, kite, explore, and document everything Cabarete has to offer, producing content that reaches their collective audience of over 1,000,000 engaged followers across the US, Canada, and Europe.

This is not a press trip or a paid promotion. This is a structured content event with real deliverables, a curated itinerary, and a clear mission: to show the world what Cabarete actually is.

The timing is no coincidence. The event is anchored around the SFT Downwind Parawing World Cup, an internationally sanctioned stop on the Surf Foil World Tour happening right here in Cabarete on June 17th. World-class athletes. International media. And now, world-class creators.

Why Cabarete? Why Now?

Cabarete is not a hidden gem. It is, by every measurable standard, the number one watersports destination in the Caribbean.

Located on the north coast of the Dominican Republic, Cabarete has built a reputation over three decades as the place where serious ocean athletes come to compete, train, and live. The trade winds that arrive like clockwork each afternoon have made Kite Beach one of the most famous kiteboarding spots on Earth. Playa Encuentro, the left-hand reef break just west of town, draws surfers from across the Americas and Europe. The same stretch of coastline hosts world-class windsurfing, wingfoiling, stand-up paddleboarding, and now foilboarding.

The events calendar confirms everything:

Master of the Ocean: now in its 20th year, this is the world's only competition where athletes compete simultaneously in surfing, kitesurfing, windsurfing, SUP, and wingfoiling. Seventy elite athletes from 17 countries. Twenty thousand dollars in prize money. One beach.

Wing Fest: hosting the official SFT Downwind Parawing World Cup stop in 2026, Wing Fest has become one of the most exciting events on the international wingfoil calendar.

The Cabarete Classic: a 19-year-old grassroots windsurfing and kitesurfing competition founded by local legend Pablito Guzman, drawing the global watersports community back to Cabarete every July.

The Butterfly Effect: now in its 18th year and the largest women's watersports event in the Caribbean, drawing over 160 women from around the world and raising over $100,000 for local nonprofits.

Despite all of this, Cabarete remains one of the most underrepresented adventure destinations in creator content globally. Search "Cabarete kiteboarding" on YouTube and you'll find GoPro footage from 2017. The events happen. The athletes compete. The conditions are world-class. And most of the world has never seen it.

The Cabarete Creator Weekend is here.

Creators Are the New Tourism Infrastructure

The IShowSpeed moment was not an anomaly.

Expedia's SVP of Brand Marketing said it clearly: "Travel inspiration today comes from creators who bring their audiences along in real time." The company called the IShowSpeed partnership "the new way of marketing", not a campaign, not a media buy, not a billboard. A creator embedded in a destination, experiencing it authentically, sharing it with millions of people who trust their perspective.

The numbers back this up. Creator advertising spend is projected to hit $44 billion globally in 2026. A single well-placed creator experience can generate more measurable tourism interest than years of traditional advertising. When IShowSpeed visited the Dominican Republic, the stream generated 7 million views in a single broadcast. That kind of attention cannot be bought through a conventional media plan.

But attention without infrastructure converts to nothing. The next phase of Caribbean tourism marketing is not just about generating viral moments. It is about building a consistent, professional, and repeatable creator content ecosystem that converts attention into bookings, awareness into arrivals, and online engagement into real economic impact for local businesses.

Who Is Iguana?

Iguana is a creator events and marketing agency specializing in travel, adventure, and sports content. We handling everything from recruitment and creative briefing to logistics, deliverables, and asset management.

Our creator network spans over 90 content creators across travel, adventure, and sports, collectively generating over 300 million views per month across platforms. We have managed influencer programs for brands including Flat 6 Motorsport's Porsche US and HydraDNA, coordinating campaigns across Amazon and TikTok that drove measurable results.

The Cabarete Creator Weekend is our first destination activation and the first of its kind in the Caribbean. It will not be the last.

The 5-Day Experience

Every day of the Cabarete Creator Weekend is anchored around a different experience and a different brand partner, creating a natural, day-by-day content arc that gives creators fresh material each morning and gives brand partners a dedicated moment in the weekend's story.

Day 1 — Sunday, June 15: Arrival Creators fly in to Puerto Plata International Airport and check into the official hotel partner. Welcome dinner. First impressions of Cabarete. The content begins the moment they land.

Day 2 — Monday, June 16: Ocean Day A morning surf session at Playa Encuentro, one of the best learning and intermediate surf breaks in the Caribbean, followed by snorkeling in Cabarete Bay. This is ocean lifestyle content at its most authentic.

Day 3 — Tuesday, June 17: Competition Day The SFT Downwind Parawing World Cup opens. Creators are on Kite Beach with full athlete access, behind-the-scenes coverage, and real-time content from one of the world's most visually spectacular watersports competitions. This is the anchor day of the entire weekend.

Day 4 — Wednesday, June 18: Kite Day A full kiteboarding lesson with one of Cabarete's world-class kite schools. Creators learn on the same beach where world champions train. The morning session produces some of the most shareable content of the entire trip, learning a new skill, the first time on the water, the first successful kite launch.

Day 5 — Thursday, June 19: Culture Day Cabarete beyond the beach. A waterfall excursion into the Dominican countryside. A walk through town. Local food. Local faces. The community and culture that makes Cabarete so much more than a watersports destination. Culture Day captures why people don't just visit Cabarete, they move there.

What Brand Partners Receive

The Cabarete Creator Weekend is a partnership model. A small number of brands from complementary categories join as official partners, each receiving dedicated creator content.

Title Partner — 1 Slot Only

The brand that makes it all possible.

• Dedicated full day built entirely around your brand experience

• Dedicated Reel per creator, your brand is the sole focus

• Full Story set per creator on your day

• Instagram Collab post , content appears simultaneously on your page and every creator's page

• Content review and approval before publishing

• Custom content brief developed with your team before the event

• All raw photo and video assets from the weekend delivered within 7 days

• 30-day performance report: reach, impressions, engagement, and content data

Presenting Partner — 3 Slots

A dedicated half-day experience and a featured moment in the weekend's content.

• Dedicated half-day creator session at your location or experience

• Shared Reel feature per creator, your experience clearly featured

• Story set per creator on your half-day

• Tag on all content, appears on your page

• All raw photo and video assets from your session delivered within 7 days

• 30-day performance report

• Logo on all event materials and recap content

Supporting Partner — Limited Slots

Culture Day inclusion and authentic destination exposure reaching engaged travel audiences.

• Creators visit your location or experience on Culture Day

• 2 Story tags per creator featuring your brand or location

• Natural, organic integration

• All raw photo and video assets captured at your location delivered within 7 days

• 30-day performance report

• Iguana channel feature across Instagram, LinkedIn, and website

Hotel Partner — Presenting Level + In-Kind Rooms

The official home base of Cabarete Creator Weekend.

• All Presenting Partner benefits

• Designated as the Official Hotel of the event across all content

• Creators stay at your property for all 5 nights, recurring visual backdrop across the weekend

• Dedicated property content session documenting rooms, pool, restaurant, and facilities

• Daily Story content from the property throughout the weekend

• All raw property footage delivered within 7 days, a full content library for ongoing hotel marketing

Partnership slots must be confirmed by June 5, 2026.

After this date, inclusion in pre-event creator content, which begins publishing the week of June 12th, cannot be guaranteed. The Title Partner slot is one. Presenting Partner slots are three. When they are filled, they are closed.

Get Involved

Whether you are a brand looking to be part of the Cabarete Creator Weekend, an event organizer interested in bringing Iguana's model to your event, or a resort or experience that wants to explore what a dedicated creator program looks like for your business, we want to hear from you.

Email us at hello@iguanagrowth.com

If you are a travel or adventure creator interested in future Iguana destination activations, reach out at the same address with a short intro and a link to your content.

The Caribbean's first creator weekend is happening in June. The world is about to see Cabarete the way it deserves to be seen.