Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Tourism has bagged two prestigious Golden City Gate Awards at the world leading travel trade show- ITB Berlin 2018. Kerala Tourism was chosen for the awards for its Biennale campaign, ‘Live Inspired’. The awards were presented to Kadakampally Surendran, Minister for Tourism, Government of Kerala, and P Bala Kiran IAS, Director, Kerala Tourism, by Wolfgang Jo Huschert, President, The Golden City Gate, at the Kerala Tourism stall at ITB Berlin.
The ‘Live Inspired’ multimedia campaign showcased the cultural, artistic and human experience in Kerala. The film was conceived and scripted by Stark Communications and directed by cinematographer Sameer Thahir. Kerala Tourism had 15 co-exhibitors for this year’s ITB Berlin. As many as 157 films from 37 countries competed with each other for the awards. A 45-member jury scrutinised and rated the films and print advertisements in 15 categories. The Diamond Award for the Best Film was bagged by Catalunya/Spain for ‘The Route of Fate’.
This is the 18th time that the Golden City Gate Awards were held at ITB Berlin. Since its inception in 2001, the Golden City Gate has been positioned as the creative and innovative expression of the tourism industry and has been taking place within ITB Berlin as an international film and multi-media competition.
The competition presents films of various categories in ITB Cinema. The three top submissions in each category are awarded City Gates in Gold, Silver and Bronze. The coveted Diamond Award of the media competition is awarded for the best contributions from all categories every year. The categories include city tourism, region, hotel, economy, event, travel magazines and documentaries, commercials, music, print campaigns, online webinars, online websites, new methods and techniques for innovative solutions, and the like.