See winners of the best tourist films in the world
Guimarães,
Portugal
Length: 04:08
Date: 06/12/25
Source. Anders Kongshaug
Free access on all platforms
STORY
According to UNWTO (the UN World Tourism Organization), around 1.4 billion people travelled internationally in 2024.
The world’s best tourism films were just presented and awarded in Guimarães, Portugal – and the winning films were more than tourism films. They were portraits with heart and a narrative that aimed for more than simply showing a destination.
The films represent important income for fishermen, farmers, family restaurants and local communities.
As José Ramón Rosado Sánchez, from Spain, says — who won the award for World’s Best City Tourism Film with the portrait of Conil, in Cádiz, Andalusia, Spain says:
“What, we try to show, is, that our roots or origins are our best promotion, because that’s what makes the difference between us and others.”
The film is called CONIL – WHERE LAND AND SEA EMBRACE, and it tells how generations of families and friends meet in Conil, year after year.
“We think that’s what people are looking for. Real, authentic moments – not a product, but an experience. So keep that essence. Keep that identity strong.”
Winning is a major achievement. The competition includes more than 4,000 tourism films from 50 countries, of which 120 were nominated in five categories: city promotion, region, country, product and service. Thirty-two were awarded as the world’s best within their fields..
The competition is organised by CIFFT – International Committee of Tourism Film Festivals, supported by UN Tourism, which is the world’s largest and most prestigious competition dedicated to tourism audiovisual content – on social media, airplains and other places you search for travel-inspiration. Films, that attract the most, are awarded through juries in New York, Los Angeles, Cannes, Japan, Spain, Croatia, Portugal, Greece, Austria, and Serbia – each with their own festival. The films collecting the most points qualify for the final: The CIFFT World’s Best Tourism Films, presented at the World Tourism Film Awards, hosted each year in a major global destination. This year in the UNESCO protected -Guimarães, near Porto Portugal – that also was European Cultural Capital in 2012
This year’s Best Country Tourism Film was produced by Switzerland, featuring tennis legend Roger Federer, who invites other well-known personalities to participate. This year, Hollywood actor Lars Mikkelsen was invited – and the story humorously shows how he struggles to find his character, delaying the filming.
The same invitation was extended in 2021 to Robert De Niro, that was the hardest to get, and also played himself, not wanting to be in a tourist film and about the winning concept, says Janine Allemann, Campaign Manager, Switzerland Tourism:
“The narrative is that Roger invites a Hollywood celebrity – a potential guest to Switzerland – to shoot an ad, and then something goes wrong along the way. He never quite manages to make it happen. But we capture how to engage them, and the beauty of the story is that the actors get to play themselves, not a role. They come as guests invited by Roger, and enjoy whatever happens.”
Roger Federer does not charge a fortune for his role; he sees it as a way to give back to his country. Switzerland Tourism directs his fee into Roger Federer Fondation, that support education for young children
The films are produced in many versions – short edits for airport screens or Instagram, and longer versions shown at conferences, onboard airplanes, or on destination websites.
Luka Benko, Director of Legal and Information Services, Zagreb Tourist Board, explains:
“Any tourism organization needs different versions. Sometimes you need a long one, sometimes a short one, depending on where you use it. /Every time you produce a destination video, you create several versions from the beginning. Here at the awards, we saw the longer versions.”
A general theme across the films is the feeling of being immersed in nature – feeling it closely.
Another theme is sustainability: spreading travellers across regions to avoid overtourism in specific cities and famous squares.
The competition runs all year, like a sports tournament – with jury voting in Amorgos Tourism Film Festival, Amorgos, Greece; ART&TUR, Fundão, Portugal; Cannes Corporate Media & TV Awards, Cannes, France; Japan World’s Tourism Film Festival, Maniwa, Japan; New York Festivals TV & Film Awards, New York, USA; SILKFEST, Belgrade, Serbia; Terres Travel Festival, Tortosa, Spain; US International Awards, Los Angeles, USA; Zagreb TourFilm Festival, Zagreb, Croatia; and Internationale Wirtschaftsfilmtage, Vienna, Austria.
The CIFFT circuit awarding World’s Best Tourist Film will start again in January in Japan and end in December 2026.
END
According to UNWTO (the UN World Tourism Organization), around 1.4 billion people travelled internationally in 2024.
The world’s best tourism films were just presented and awarded in Guimarães, Portugal – and the winning films were more than tourism films. They were portraits with heart and a narrative that aimed for more than simply showing a destination.
The films represent important income for fishermen, farmers, family restaurants and local communities.
As José Ramón Rosado Sánchez, from Spain, says — who won the award for World’s Best City Tourism Film with the portrait of Conil, in Cádiz, Andalusia, Spain says:
“What, we try to show, is, that our roots or origins are our best promotion, because that’s what makes the difference between us and others.”
The film is called CONIL – WHERE LAND AND SEA EMBRACE, and it tells how generations of families and friends meet in Conil, year after year.
“We think that’s what people are looking for. Real, authentic moments – not a product, but an experience. So keep that essence. Keep that identity strong.”
Winning is a major achievement. The competition includes more than 4,000 tourism films from 50 countries, of which 120 were nominated in five categories: city promotion, region, country, product and service. Thirty-two were awarded as the world’s best within their fields..
The competition is organised by CIFFT – International Committee of Tourism Film Festivals, supported by UN Tourism, which is the world’s largest and most prestigious competition dedicated to tourism audiovisual content – on social media, airplains and other places you search for travel-inspiration. Films, that attract the most, are awarded through juries in New York, Los Angeles, Cannes, Japan, Spain, Croatia, Portugal, Greece, Austria, and Serbia – each with their own festival. The films collecting the most points qualify for the final: The CIFFT World’s Best Tourism Films, presented at the World Tourism Film Awards, hosted each year in a major global destination. This year in the UNESCO protected -Guimarães, near Porto Portugal – that also was European Cultural Capital in 2012
This year’s Best Country Tourism Film was produced by Switzerland, featuring tennis legend Roger Federer, who invites other well-known personalities to participate. This year, Hollywood actor Lars Mikkelsen was invited – and the story humorously shows how he struggles to find his character, delaying the filming.
The same invitation was extended in 2021 to Robert De Niro, that was the hardest to get, and also played himself, not wanting to be in a tourist film and about the winning concept, says Janine Allemann, Campaign Manager, Switzerland Tourism:
“The narrative is that Roger invites a Hollywood celebrity – a potential guest to Switzerland – to shoot an ad, and then something goes wrong along the way. He never quite manages to make it happen. But we capture how to engage them, and the beauty of the story is that the actors get to play themselves, not a role. They come as guests invited by Roger, and enjoy whatever happens.”
Roger Federer does not charge a fortune for his role; he sees it as a way to give back to his country. Switzerland Tourism directs his fee into Roger Federer Fondation, that support education for young children
The films are produced in many versions – short edits for airport screens or Instagram, and longer versions shown at conferences, onboard airplanes, or on destination websites.
Luka Benko, Director of Legal and Information Services, Zagreb Tourist Board, explains:
“Any tourism organization needs different versions. Sometimes you need a long one, sometimes a short one, depending on where you use it. /Every time you produce a destination video, you create several versions from the beginning. Here at the awards, we saw the longer versions.”
A general theme across the films is the feeling of being immersed in nature – feeling it closely.
Another theme is sustainability: spreading travellers across regions to avoid overtourism in specific cities and famous squares.
The competition runs all year, like a sports tournament – with jury voting in Amorgos Tourism Film Festival, Amorgos, Greece; ART&TUR, Fundão, Portugal; Cannes Corporate Media & TV Awards, Cannes, France; Japan World’s Tourism Film Festival, Maniwa, Japan; New York Festivals TV & Film Awards, New York, USA; SILKFEST, Belgrade, Serbia; Terres Travel Festival, Tortosa, Spain; US International Awards, Los Angeles, USA; Zagreb TourFilm Festival, Zagreb, Croatia; and Internationale Wirtschaftsfilmtage, Vienna, Austria.
The CIFFT circuit awarding World’s Best Tourist Film will start again in January in Japan and end in December 2026.
END
SHOTLIST
- WORLD TOURISM FILM AWARD SIGN
- ENTRANCE TO WORLD TOURISM FILM AWARD
- INTRODUCTION ON STAGE by ALEXANDER V. KAMMEL, CIFFT DIRECTOR
- SHOT OF AUDIENCE WHILE FILM IS RUNNING
- FILM: Conil, where land and sea embrace, Spain
- 1st place in City Promotion films
- Tourism Board Conil. Innova Film
- SOUNDBITES Jose Ramon – Conil Tourism Councilor:
“That’s right in the film. What we try to show is that our roots or origins for us is the best promotion, because that’s what makes the difference” - FILM: Conil, where land and sea embrace, Spain
- 1st place in City Promotion films
- Tourism Board Conil. Innova Film
- SOUNDBITES Jose Ramon – Conil Tourism Councilor CONT.:
“We think that’s what people are looking for. Real, real are not a product, an experience. If you go to visit any city, any town, and you find the same everywhere, what are you looking for? Nothing. If you are looking for authenticity, that’s what we have. That’s what we do. So keep that essence. Keep that identity, strongly” - SCREENSHOT OF WEBSITE FROM CIIFT WITH THE WINNERS, ZOOMING IN ON SWITZERLAND
- FILM: Falling for Autumn, SWITZERLAND
- SWITZERLAND TOURISM, MQueen Film,
- 1st place in Country Promotion films
- PEOPLE FROM SWITZERLAND GOES ON STAGE
- SOUNDBITES Janine Allemann, Campaign Manager, Switzerland Tourism:“
“Yeah. So basically the narrative is that Roger is inviting a celebrity, a Hollywood celebrity, someone outside of Switzerland, a potential guest to Switzerland, to his home country to shoot an ad about Switzerland, and then something goes wrong along the way. So he never actually makes that happen. But, we kind of capture how to engage. And the narrative beautiful story about is this really that, that day, that they get the actors get to play themselves. So it’s not just, that they have to play a specific role, but they really get to play themselves“ - FILM: Falling for Autumn, SWITZERLAND
- SWITZERLAND TOURISM, MQueen Film,
- 1st place in Country Promotion films
- AUDIENCE WATCHING FILMS ON BIG SCREEN
- SOUNDBITE Luka Benko, Director of Legal and Information Services, Zagreb Tourist Board, explains:“Any tourism organization needs different versions. Sometimes you need a long one, sometimes a short one, depending on where you use it.
- CLIP Portugal’s Unwritten Recipe – WINNER TOURISM PRODUCTS
- TURISMO DE PORTUGAL, Casper Films,
- SOUNDBITE Luka Benko, Director of Legal and Information Services, Zagreb Tourist Board, explains:“Every time you produce a destination video, you create several versions from the beginning. Here at the awards, we saw the longer versions.”
- CLIP Portugal’s Unwritten Recipe – WINNER TOURISM PRODUCTS
- TURISMO DE PORTUGAL, Casper Films,
- SOUNDBITE Jury Member Julie O’Brien“It gives us reasons to explore places and discover new ways of living and finding out, you know, different things about people and their environments. So I thought the whole thing was literally wonderful.”
- CLOSE UP OF SIGN OF WORLD TOURISM FILM AWARD
- AUDIENCE CLAPPING
- WINNERS TOGETHER ON STAGE
- AUDIENCE WATCHING FILMS ON BIG SCREEN
END
LINKS
CIFFT Ranking Lists: https://www.cifft.com/ranking-list/1
Full winning films:
https://www.cifft.com/winners