5 Video Formats Every US Tourism Board Should Be Producing in 2026
Tourism marketing video has converged on five formats that consistently move visitor volume, trade engagement, and stakeholder funding. Here is what each one is and how to prioritize.
What video formats actually matter for tourism boards?
Tourism marketing video has converged on a handful of formats that consistently move the metrics boards are measured on: visitor volume, visitor spend, trade partner engagement, and stakeholder funding support. Other formats - long-form documentary series, large-budget hero films, broadcast-quality TVCs - still get produced, but rarely move those specific numbers.
Below are the five formats producing the most value across state tourism offices, convention and visitors bureaus, and destination marketing organizations in 2026. Three of them are anchored in animation or motion graphics. Two are live action with shared production workflows.
Format 1: Multi-language destination explainers
The single highest-leverage format in international tourism marketing. A 60 to 90-second destination explainer, produced once as a master, then localized into 8 to 12 international market languages. Lives on the destination marketing site, in trade partner channels, and in international paid social campaigns.
Why this format matters: international visitor recovery and growth depends on reaching travelers in their own language and cultural context. A single English-only anthem video misses 60 to 80 percent of the international visitor opportunity. Production approach detailed in our piece on multi-language destination videos at scale.
Format 2: Trade enablement video series
A library of short videos (60 to 90 seconds each) built for travel agents, tour operators, and meeting planners. Each video covers one product, one experience, or one selling angle. Distributed through trade portals, partner enablement kits, and trade shows.
Why this format matters: most international visitor lift comes through trade partners, not direct booking. Trade enablement video is how a destination stays in the partner's sales toolkit between trade events. Production cadence: quarterly drops of 3 to 5 new videos, plus refreshes of the evergreen core. See producing travel trade enablement video for the format detail.
Format 3: Animated stakeholder reporting
A 90-second to 3-minute video that distills the year's marketing impact into a format the legislature, the board, and members will actually watch. Mixed format with live action for member and partner voices and motion graphics for the data segments.
Why this format matters: stakeholder funding cycles depend on visible impact. PDF annual reports get filed. Video stakeholder updates get shared. The format also doubles as public-facing accountability content. See stakeholder reporting video for the production approach.
Format 4: Event recap and asset library production
Recap videos from trade missions, IPW, festivals, partner events, and board events. Plus the broader asset library that comes out of each shoot - B-roll, partner interviews, audience footage that powers other formats across the year.
Why this format matters: tourism boards generate dozens of events a year. Each one is an opportunity to produce content that lives beyond the event itself, but only if production keeps pace with the event cadence. See event recap videos for tourism boards.
Format 5: Crisis-ready video kit
This is the format most tourism boards do not have until they need it. A pre-built kit of brand templates, music tracks, graphic packages, and statement frameworks designed to produce a finished crisis communication video in hours, not days.
Why this format matters: hurricane season, wildfire season, public health events, and other crises happen on their own clock. Tourism boards that wait until the crisis to set up the production workflow are 2 to 4 days behind the news cycle. Boards with the pre-built kit ship in the first 24 hours. See crisis communications video for tourism boards.
Why three of the five are animation-led or animation-supported
Tourism is a category that mixes the highly visual (the destination itself) with the abstract (international travel decisions, stakeholder ROI, sustainability systems). Live action handles the visual half. Animation and motion graphics handle the abstract half. The formats where pure live action wins (trade interviews, member spotlights) are the formats where the value is the human on screen.
Five years ago this mix skewed heavily to live action. The economic shift toward animation - faster production, lower cost per output, easier localization - has changed the math. For broader context on the shift, see how corporate video trends have shifted in 2026.
How to prioritize if you are starting from zero
If your tourism board has no existing video library and limited budget, this is the order that delivers value fastest.
- One destination explainer with localization for your top 3 international markets
- One trade enablement series for your highest-volume trade partner segment
- One stakeholder reporting video for the upcoming legislative briefing
- The pre-built crisis kit (do not wait for the crisis)
- One event recap from your next major event
That is 5 to 7 finished videos in the first 90 days, covering the five formats with proven value. From there, expand each format in line with the metrics that move your board's specific funding case.
What does this cost?
For a mid-sized state tourism office or CVB producing on the cadence above, $150,000 to $300,000 per year covers production for 30 to 50 videos across the five formats. That is meaningfully less than most tourism boards currently spend on agency-produced video, with materially higher output.
For an example of a marketing team running this kind of production efficiently on a small footprint, see the Dual North America case study. Or read the enterprise video playbook for more on building the broader video program.
