The relationship between audiovisual, culture, and tourism is very clear, hence the decision to celebrate the Platinum Awards in the Mexican Caribbean, they said in the opening session of the UN Tourism International Forum Tourism and Culture: A movie relationship, which took place this Friday, April 19th, in Xcaret, within the framework of the awards ceremony for the best of Ibero-American cinema, which will take place on Saturday, April 20.
Enrique Cerezo, president of the Platino Awards, highlighted that strengthening collaboration with the audiovisual industry sector is essential due to his vision for the incorporation into politics and of the topic of screen tourism and for studying the link between the audiovisual industry and tourism promotion.
“An excellent union of culture and tourism, two activities and two industries that complement each other, the cities and their surroundings, their culture, their gastronomy, where the awards have been held have had great international dissemination that has resulted in an economic return and significant image in this edition, the equivalent advertising value of the awards and their destination already exceeds 200 million US dollars,” he shared.
It is a great forum and it is no coincidence that more than 20 million tourists come to visit Quintana Roo every year, and now a focus on diversifying the tourist offer is being provided in which audiovisual tourism is configured as a proposal and a long-term strategy.
Increasingly, he asserted, destinations receive travelers whose motivation is to visit places where cinematographic productions were filmed, in addition to the fact that audio content can foster relationships and cultural affinity with destinations, countries, and tourism communities, to celebrate and promote the local culture.
For his part, Zurab Pololikashvili, secretary general of UN Tourism, made a special mention of strategic infrastructure works such as the Maya Train and the new Tulum airport, which diversify tourism in the state and support the integration of group communities in the many and very diverse sectors, but also in strengthening the opportunity to explore the region’s tourism attractions and its culture.
Among those attending the opening session were Isabel Díaz Ayuso, president of the community of Madrid; and Miguel Quintana Pali, president of Grupo Xcaret.
Finally, they highlighted that at the gala on Saturday, April 20, the winners of 23 categories of the 11th edition of the Platino Awards will be announced. It was said that the audience award for Best Film went to the Spanish film “Society of the Snow.”