“The Majestic Adventures of Ofelia de Souza" was awarded this Thursday at the World's Tourism Film Awards, in Valencia. The promotional film by Turismo do Porto e Norte de Portugal won the title of World's Best Tourism Film, in the "Tourism Products" category.

"The Majestic Adventures of Ofelia de Souza", for the Meeting & Industry segment, won the title of World's Best Tourism Film, in the "Tourism Products" category, promoted by the International Committee of Tourism Film Festivals (CIFFT).

“It is the corollary of an incredible job of positioning the region, which enabled us to raise our profile and positioning. It is an honour to win an award that has never been won by Portugal”, explains president of Turismo do Porto e Norte de Portugal, Luís Pedro Martins.

The ceremony of the 34th edition of the World's Tourism Film Awards took place on November 24^th, in Valencia (Spain), where the winners of the categories “Cities”, “Regions”, “Countries”, “Services” and “Tourism Products” got their awards.

Luís Pedro Martins, who attended the event to receive the award in this last category, points out that “this victory is yet another incentive for all partners of Porto and North of Portugal, which after two difficult years, with their efforts, allowed the spiralling return of the sector to pre-pandemic levels”.

With the best score among all the categories in the competition, “The Majestic Adventures of Ofelia de Souza” came in first place in this ranking thanks to the points earned following the awards received in the ten festivals that make up the CIFFT’s world circuit. A circuit where it competed with 34 other foreign promotional films, in the “Tourism Products” category.

Luís Pedro Martins asserts that “the awards won by the film 'Ofelia de Souza' prove the effort made on a very disruptive, creative, original and somewhat risky communication in the Business Tourism segment, in which the region has a very high potential either for the quality of the existing venues here, or for the existing offer in the social aspect in the pre and post-events”.

And the results are there to see. The president of Turismo do Porto e Norte explains that "this year alone it has attracted more than one hundred events, such as the M&I Forum (Porto), the AITO Overseas Conference (Braga), Wordcamp Europe (Porto), helping to bring to Porto and North of Portugal more than 32 thousand people".

Premiered in October 2021, the film, just over three minutes long, has as its main star Ofelia de Souza, an experienced and flamboyant 72-year-old event planner and epicurean, who faithfully accompanied by her assistants (“Ofelier” and “Ofeliette”), shares tips and for choosing and enjoying one of the best business tourism destinations in the world.

Success was almost immediate. It all started in March at the Japan World’s Tourism Film Festival, where the film won the festival’s Grand Prix and first place in the “Tourism Products” category. This was followed by victories at the New York Festivals TV & Film Awards, in April, where it won the Gold Trophy, in the “Corporate Image – Tourism” category, and in Cape Town, at the International Tourism Film Festival Africa, in May, where it received the Grand Prix in the category “Tourism International” and the Gold Award in “Tourism Products”.

In September, the film was one of the winners of the Terres Travel Festival, in Barcelona, ​​having received the Gold Award in the category “Tourism Products - MICE”, and, in October, it was awarded at the Zagreb TourFilm Festival, Cannes Corporate Media & TV Awards and ART&TUR - International Tourism Film Festival.

In Zagreb, the film took home the award for “Best Event Film”; in Cannes the Gold Trophy in the “Tourism Products” category; and, finally, in Ourém, it was the most awarded of the festival, having won the Grand Prix in the national and international competition, the “Best Promotional Film ART&TUR 2022” award and first place in the “MICE" category, also in the national and international competition.

Finally, at Amorgos Tourism Film Festival, the Greek festival that closed the CIFFT circuit, the promotional film of Turismo do Porto e Norte also won the second award in the “Tourism Products” category.

The president of Turismo do Porto e Norte recalls that "a very strong commitment has been made to promoting the region in foreign markets and, in particular, in the inbound countries that are closest to us and that represent the largest share of tourists who visited the region by the beginning of 2020".

“The work was very worthwhile, and the results are already having effect in the region's demand rates, having closed the year with an absolute record of tourists”, stresses Luís Pedro Martins. He also recalls that, “in 2019, almost 11 million overnight stays were recorded in the region, in a record that shows a historic growth of 9.7 percent, the highest at a national level”.

Basically, it is an additional incentive for the region, and for the partners of Turismo do Porto e Norte, at a time when tourism is showing clear signs of recovery. "Only between January and September, we already exceeded the number of guests of 2019, by 2.4%. And even in terms of overnight stays, taking into account that in the first three months of 2022 the number of tourists in the country was still very low, due to the restrictions imposed by the pandemic, the numbers are very encouraging: “Comparing the figures between January and September, we are also ahead of 2019, with 6.1% more overnight stays”, he adds.