Tourism and gastronomy are inseparable. This union results in the offer of unique experiences that transmits the essence of the tourism destination. Gastronomic Tourism also contributes to the promotion of the destination's brand and the preservation of local traditions, as well as stimulating authenticity (UNWTO).
Behind a delicious dish, there is the extraordinary effort and conquest of a group of actors involved in the supply chain. It is necessary to value these ordinary people whose work reflects the greatness of its culture. This is the message of the promotional video “Hunger for Experiences”, by Turismo de Rías Baixas, Spain.
The video shows that the production of quality food is a legacy in the destination. Techniques of agriculture, grazing cattle, raising pigs, artisanal fishing represent a rich knowledge that endures and is transmitted between generations. This work is culture and heritage, which leads to the unique gastronomy experiences that people can find in the region, from traditional cuisine to high gastronomy and Michelin starred restaurants.
According to Ruth González Reyes, Rías Baixas DMO Manager, “We are trying to transmit how important gastronomy is to our culture, with a strong bond and respect for tradition and nature. Most of these families pass their craft down to the next generation, building a legacy on respectful high-quality food products.”
To the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), Gastronomy represents an opportunity to revitalize and diversify tourism, promote local economic development, and involves many different professional sectors.
“From the Rías Baixas destination, we try to transfer the success of our consolidated product, gastronomy, to the entire value chain. Our visitors know that in the province of Pontevedra you eat very well, from traditional cuisine to the most avant-garde. But to a large extent, it is because we have an excellent product, a work that was necessary to make visible, putting the producers as protagonists”, said Ruth González Reyes.
The video “Hunger for experiences" collects international awards achieved at the Grand Prix CIFFT Circuit 2020, the biggest competition in the Travel Video Marketing Industry, that brings together the World’s Best Tourism Film Festivals.
The relevant prizes were received at Golden City Gate, New York Festivals, ITFF Bulgaria, Tourfilm Riga, Terres Travel Festival, Istanbul Tourism Film Festival, US International Film & Video Festival, Silafest, Zagreb TourFilm Festival, ART&TUR - International Tourism Film Festival, and Amorgos Tourism Film Festival. The video also was awarded by CIFFT with the prestigious title of the World's Best Tourism Film 2020 in Tourism Products.
To know more about the promotional video “Hunger for experiences", we spoke with Ruth González Reyes, Rías Baixas DMO Manager, and also with the film directors Laura Fontán and Alberto Baamonde from Esmerarte Industrias Creativas
Watch now "Hunger for experiences"
The creative process of "Hunger for experiences"
Interview with Ruth González Reyes, DMO Manager of Rías Baixas Tourism
- What is the purpose of the video?
The video aims to connect excellent food with the astonishing landscape of our territory and the respect for the environment. It highlights the use of traditional methods of fishing and shellfishing, sustainable farming, and native strain breeding, and takes advantage of the role of haute cuisine chefs as prescribers, without neglecting traditional cuisine. Looking out over the Rías Baixas and seeing the shellfish gatherers at work, or touring the countryside inland enriches the trip. Knowing these jobs better adds value to the gastronomic experience and accentuates our uniqueness as a destination.
- Who is your target audience?
Gastronomy is one of the most universal travel motivations. This video allows us to reach the most foodies and perhaps connoisseurs of our 5 Michelin Star restaurants with a renewed image, but it also piques the interest of younger people of any nationality, who want to discover traditional cuisine, stroll through the food squares or visit a fish market and enrich your travel experience, be it an urban getaway, a rural stay or a long-term stay at the beach.
- What is the key message of Hunger for experiences?
“Are you hungry for the widest variety of excellent food experiences? You need to discover the Rías Baixas gastronomic legacy.”
- What specific visuals should be captured by the viewer?
The integration of the production processes with the landscape delivers the most striking scenes, since the hardness of the tasks that producers carry out with respect for nature and its cycles, in matchless landscapes, can be appreciated. And, on the other hand, the fabulous restaurants and the succulent culinary preparations.
- In your opinion, how important is storytelling in Travel Video Marketing?
From the tourism service of the Diputación de Pontevedra, we always bet on videos that awaken empathy and emotions in the viewer. We cannot understand promotion in any other way since that is also our people and our destination: welcoming, exciting, open. Our videos usually stand out from our competitors' contents, and this approach is part of this success.
- Is the video part of a campaign?
Hunger for Experiences was part of our annual tourism campaign for 2019, which included traditional and online media, with significant branded content in the video for social networks. We developed micro-reports on our most unique products, from mussels or oysters from “bateas” (wooden platforms that are floating on the sea) to stews or wines with D.O. Rías Baixas, in addition to the main video. The campaign was presented to all stakeholders in an event aimed at tourism professionals in our province; Workshops were held in issuing markets and the launch of the campaign took place at the FITUR international fair with great media coverage.
Interview with the film directors Laura Fontán and Alberto Baamonde, from Esmerarte Industrias Creativas
- How was the production process of Hunger for experiences?
We invested a lot of time in locating the main characters and locations. The most difficult thing was to convince these characters, who are common people, to perform in front of the cameras as if they were actors, to let us go into their homes and follow them in their daily activities. They are not used to it, but they welcomed us with great patience and affection. It was also a challenge to capture all the diversity of products and landscapes that we have in the province in a short piece.
- What is the purpose of the video?
The purpose was to show that great gastronomy requires the coordinated effort of many families in the search for excellence. We have a great kitchen because we have incredible products, and they mean a lot to our culture and to our tourism. The cuisine is the second reason after nature for visiting the Rías Baixas destination. Both are inseparable, so we show traditional fishing gear and gather shellfish, native species of great culinary value and respectful agriculture. A sustainable production system leads to a unique kitchen.
- What were the main challenges during the film production?
The biggest challenge for a production like Hunger for experiences is to make a corporate video look like an advertisement spot that has a much shorter duration and a significantly higher budget. This work requires a lot of creativity, knowledge of the territory, being very efficient with resources, and above all having a team with talent and experience at all levels of production.
There is another difficulty that is common in tourism videos, it is the weather conditions and the timing of the actions to be recorded. In this case, whether accompanied us and this allowed us to show the territory with a luminosity that helped us to enhance the landscape. We also selected actions that were not subject to the producers' timetable (such as a grape harvest), in order to record the real work of the protagonists in a tight time frame.
- Video is a powerful tool to promote tourism destinations. Technically speaking, what is a good tourism video?
Currently, there are audiovisual media available for any audiovisual creator to make good videos. In this way, the technique is accessible to audiovisual technicians. The question is to work the content with a differential approach and aligned it with a good creative proposal. A good direction of photography is essential, but also the eyes of the director, to obtain the best result from each location. It is necessary to know how to see the beauty of a rainy landscape, or with fog, this is important. It is also important to innovate in the montage and offer risky perspectives, go beyond the typical aerial shots and allow creative licenses that are visually surprising.
- Consumers see in the videos that tourist destinations bring them content with a clearer personality. Do you think the video is more effective in reaching people than traditional advertising?
Definitely. The well-used video allows us to empathize with the audience on another level. And it offers optimal results in the online channel. We work a lot with pre-roll spots on YouTube and other social networks and the results have no competition with other formats. Even in traditional print media, we always insert a QR to direct to the video or to a campaign landing page where the public can expand information and access audiovisuals because they are the materials that best transmit messages.
- What you think is the video's role in this current situation?
We need to transmit a lot of empathy and be subtle at a time like this, and video allows us to transmit intangibles and emotions like no other medium. It is more important than ever for destinations to renew their messages, rethink their audiences and markets, and position their brand, but aggressive campaigns are not going to have good results at this time, we must work from another sensitivity.
