ANKARA

The International Committee of Tourism Film Festival (CIFFT) has announced 2021 World's Best Tourism Films in Valencia, Spain, on Friday.

While describing the Spanish province of Valencia as "a city at the forefront of innovation and creativity in tourism," the committee said in a written statement that the announcement was made in the city for the first time in history "outside its hometown Vienna (Austria)."

"Throughout the year, more than 3300 submissions from more than 90 countries competed in the tourism film festivals that integrate the CIFFT Circuit to achieve the highest recognition for Travel Video Marketing – the title of World's Best Tourism Film," noted the statement.

"To achieve this prestigious nomination, participants had to win the largest number of awards in the CIFFT Circuit's stages spread across four continents, which guaranteed access to the CIFFT Ranking List, the leading global resource for benchmarking creativity and effectiveness in Tourism Communication" it added.

It also mentioned that there are six thematic categories determined, which are Tourism Destinations City, Region and Country, Tourism Services, Tourism Products, and Independent Travel Videos.

Awards

Naming the award given by the committee as the "Tourism Oscars," the committee announced that the first place in the category Tourism Destinations Cities belongs to "Vilnius: amazing wherever you think it is" by Lithuania.

In the same category, Austrian films "Kitzbühel 365 – NEW Worlds, NEW Cosms, NEW Wonders" and "Klagenfurt: Everything possible, but nothing necessary" got the second and the third places respectively.

"In the category, Tourism Destinations Regions, the title of World's Best Tourism Films went to 'Seek Different' (Australia) as the 1st place; 'South Australia: hear it, touch it, see it to believe it' (Australia) as the 2nd place; and 'Chasing Lines' (South Africa) as the 3rd place," the committee noted.

"In the Tourism Destinations Countries category, the World's Best Tourism Films were 'Lithuania. Discover Colours You Never Knew Existed' (Lithuania) in the 1st place; 'time to #stayhome. Turn to nature and dream' (Slovenia) in the 2nd place; and 'Much more than 'just' Denmark' (Denmark) in the 3rd place."

"The title of World's Best Tourism Films promoting Tourism Services went to 'The Perfect Proposal' (Greece) in the 1st place, 'Prayer' (Japan) in the 2nd place; and 'Inspiration and Comfort - Timeless Yukiguni' (Japan) in the 3rd place.

"In the category focused on Tourism Products, the World's Best Tourism Films were 'Follow your instinct' (Spain) as the 1st place; 'Wine Tales' (Italy) as the 2nd place; and 'Jane Meets Madrid' (Spain) as the 3rd place.

"Last but not least, the World's Best Tourism Film produced by an independent filmmaker was 'Two Deaf Travellers' (United Kingdom)."

Contest

The committee also explained why this contest exists and what it wants to achieve.

"The World's Tourism Film Awards aims to stimulate, recognize and award creative excellence in tourism communication. Its results come from the CIFFT Circuit, a year-long competition between video ads and campaigns from notable tourism brands, creative agencies, and production companies," it stated.

"About 450 awards were assigned in this year's competition by international panels of juries, which brought together experts in Tourism, Marketing and Audiovisual Industries, including Oscar and Emmy former-winners," the committee noted.

"These figures reveal that despite tourism being one of the industries most affected by the pandemic, tourism destinations, more than ever, recognize the importance of using video, not only as a promotional tool but to creating a meaningful connection with visitors worldwide."

"The World's Tourism Awards 2021 counted with the support of Visit València and was endorsed by UNWTO (World Tourism Organization), ETC (European Travel Commission), CTO (Caribbean Tourism Organization), and CATA (Centro America Tourism Association)," it added.