International Tourism Film & Multimedia Festival "The Golden City Gate" honors tourism companies with the coveted "Diamond Award" also in the second Corona year.
Bingen/Germany, 20.05.2022 | The international film-print-multimedia competition “The Golden City Gate” was held for the 22nd time during a new established B2B trade fair “Back to Travel” in Bingen/Germany on May 19th, 2022. The fair was the first opportunity for the tourism professionals to meet back in person for such an event, after ITB Berlin even in 2022 had unfortunately to be cancelled for the 3rd year in a row. The organizers of the event hope that business will recover soon from all global restrictions in the past years.
The film competition, which has been organized since the year 2000 takes place every year in March during ITB Berlin, the largest international trade fair for the tourism industry.
The Competition in 2022
In this year´s competition, 50 participating entries from 15 countries were reviewed by an international jury and judged in 14 different categories in the Steigenberger Hotel Bad Homburg which was held on May 3rd, 2022. This year, Ali Ihsan Barut from Barut Hotels received a lifetime award for his ongoing work in the tourism industry in Turkey for more than 50 years now. The competition in general is being held to give all participants an additional platform to promote their respective destination(s) or company(s).
Many high-quality films were submitted this year, even though, filmmakers are still facing restrictions globally. That´s why digital events remain present. The cinematographic aspects of the competition were extensively appreciated by the jury, but the focus remains on: creativity, storytelling, emotion and the general informational value of the submissions alongside with the ongoing process of fighting Corona restrictions and other global insecurities. In this context, the president of the competition, Wolfgang Jo Huschert, points out (once more) the importance of the “The Golden City Gate” competition for the commissioning tourism companies and their agencies and filmmakers.
Added value for the tourism industry:
The competition is primarily a platform for tourism managers and filmmakers to learn about the latest tourism production status of cinematic works worldwide. The competition shows what to pay attention on in order to stand out from the masses of Internet videos on social media. In this context, Andreas Lambeck, Managing Director of Sonnenklar TV, Europe’s largest tourism channel for the tourism industry with a daily reach of over 2 million viewers, emphasizes: “For our marketing in offering the world’s tourism regions and the tourism industry’s travel products, we are happy to receive good and meaningful film submissions to achieve a maximum of enthusiasm for the destinations among our customers. Therefore, we are happy to cooperate with the int. film-print multimedia competition “The Golden City Gate “- and thus increase the reach of the films participating in the competition.”
This year´s film features
Every year, the competition reflects the trends and goals of the tourism industry. Whereas in the early 2000s the focus was still on the greatest possible reach and marketing of the destinations. In the 2010s a trend toward greater customer loyalty and short trips began to emerge, which is reflected again this year by very different creative approaches in the competition. This year, for example, there is a clear trend towards individual tourism against mass tourism. To have a relaxing stay in one of the tourist destinations with close relatives is more than ever part of the cinematic approach, which also can be seen in this year´s Diamond Award winning film.
There are signs of more conscious travel, for which the regions of the world are preparing with appropriate offers. All this is often excellently implemented in this year’s film contributions. However, the stories behind the films are – as nearly always – unique and worth seeing. Overall, many stories are told that show what was once “normal” and hopefully will be that “normal” again. This also covers the approach of the B2B fair “Back to Travel” again, which is clearly a statement by the organizers.
The Diamond Award
In every year, the official announcement of the Diamond Award winner is a thrilling moment, especially after having the show only be held digitally, or in a small setting in the past 2 years.
But after counting the points from the Jury session, there has been a clear Diamond Award winner:
The International Diamond Award in this year´s competition of The Golden City Gate goes to the Slovenian entry: „Slovenian Stories”, which was registered by the Slovenian Tourist Board in the category “Art & Culture”. The film has been a partnership project with Google Arts & Culture in Slovenia and offers an insight into Slovenia's rich natural and cultural heritage.
The Golden City Gate Competition
The competition is organized by Huschert Film+Medien GmbH in Cologne. The official patronage has been taken over by the Bundesverband der deutschen Film- und AV-Produzenten e.V., which is also a member of SPIO Wiesbaden/Berlin. Since mid-2020, “The Golden City Gate” competition has been cooperating with Europe’s largest tourism travel channel “Sonnenklar TV”.
We will plan the next edition of “The Golden City Gate” for 2023 and would like to see you again with your contributions. Next ITB Berlin will be held from: 08/03/2023 to 12/03/2023.