Tourism in 2’: Bangkok University Students Put Destination Storytelling on the Clock
Two minutes. One camera. One story worth telling.
More than 100 Bangkok University students are putting tourism storytelling against the clock with Tourism in 2, a short-form documentary competition that challenges emerging filmmakers to capture the people, places and experiences behind travel in just 120 seconds.
Students from the university’s IMI News & Documentary Production course were given two weeks to conceive, script, shoot, edit and deliver an original two-minute documentary. The resulting films form a curated series created and presented by Trends in partnership with TravelDailyNews and Bangkok University.
The films will roll out on the Trends YouTube channel alongside editorial features on TravelDailyNews.asia. A 45-second teaser has already been released, with the full student collection and three winning films to follow.
The project lands at a moment when the battle for viewers’ attention has rarely been fiercer. YouTube said in April 2025 that more than 20 million videos were being uploaded to the platform every day. Against that torrent of content, Tourism in 2 makes a deceptively simple proposition: beautiful pictures may stop the scroll, but a compelling story can make somebody stay.
“Beautiful images can attract our attention, but people and their stories give us a reason to care,” says David Barrett, founder and presenter of Trends. “Tourism in 2 challenges emerging documentary filmmakers to make every second count and reveal something meaningful about the world we travel through.”
That means moving beyond postcard filmmaking. The brief encourages interviews, narration, observation and human perspectives, pushing students to find the story behind a destination rather than simply showcase the destination itself.
The compressed format is also an exercise in editorial discipline. There is little room for indulgence when an entire beginning, middle and end must fit inside two minutes.
“The two-week deadline required students to move from an idea to a finished documentary with focus and discipline,” says Marian Ehret, PhD, lecturer with Bangkok University International’s Innovative Media International Program. “They had to find a story, listen carefully and make thoughtful choices about what audiences needed to see and hear.”
The experiment also reflects a media landscape increasingly shaped by younger audiences and social video. Deloitte’s 2025 U.S. research found Gen Z respondents spent 54% more time than the average consumer using social platforms and watching user-generated content. Meanwhile, Wyzowl’s 2026 survey reported that 91% of businesses surveyed were using video as a marketing tool.
For tourism, the implications go beyond shorter running times. Destinations, hotels and travel brands increasingly need stories capable of working across platforms where audiences decide within seconds whether something deserves their attention.
“Taking student work beyond the classroom gives emerging filmmakers an opportunity to connect with public audiences,” says Isaya Sinpongsporn, PhD., chairperson of Bangkok University’s Innovative Media Production International Program. “Tourism in 2 combines practical production experience with the challenge of communicating a meaningful perspective.”
For the students, it is an assignment with a real audience. For the tourism industry, it offers something equally useful: a glimpse at how the next generation of filmmakers sees travel when given just two minutes to tell its story.
Comments