Hospitality and travel explainer videos help guests use services and help communities understand tourism. These examples cover digital keys, host protection, border processes, destination investment and outdoor responsibility.
By
Larry Mutenda
| What are the best hospitality and travel explainer video examples? Strong hospitality and travel explainer video examples include Tourism Burnaby for tourism value, Hilton for a guest app, Airbnb for a host program, Toronto Pearson and the Canada Border Services Agency for airport and border processes, Destination British Columbia for stakeholder communication and Visit Longmont for visitor education. |
Hospitality and travel explainer videos are short videos that help guests use services and help communities understand tourism. Some answer a question at a hotel door or an airport kiosk. Others explain decisions that happen long before a visitor arrives.
This article looks at seven explainer video examples for hospitality and travel from Tourism Burnaby, Hilton, Airbnb, Toronto Pearson, Canada Border Services Agency, Destination British Columbia and Visit Longmont. For each one, I describe what the video covers, who it speaks to and what other hotels, airports and tourism boards can take from it. After the examples, I cover pre-arrival videos and explaining tourism’s value to a community. Then I explain how to plan your own hospitality and travel explainer video.
Travel questions often arise away from a desk and close to an action. Other tourism messages concern decisions made by hosts or communities long before a guest arrives. The examples separate those settings.
Here is a quick overview of the seven videos in this article, grouped by how each company uses the video. The table links to each example below.
We picked videos that each show a different job a hospitality explainer can do: tourism value for residents, a guest app, a host program, airport and border processes, stakeholder communication and visitor education.
The lead example, Tourism Burnaby, comes from the Creamy Animation video library. The other six videos are published on each company’s own YouTube channel and were publicly available when we checked them in October 2026. We describe each video from its own content and description, and we credit any figures to the company that published them.
| # | Company | Use |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tourism Burnaby | Lead example: tourism value for residents |
| 2 | Hilton | Guest app how-to |
| 3 | Airbnb | Host / partner program |
| 4 | Toronto Pearson | Airport and border process |
| 5 | Canada Border Services Agency | Airport and border process |
| 6 | Destination British Columbia | Stakeholder communication |
| 7 | Visit Longmont | Visitor education |
A guest standing at a hotel door needs an immediate instruction. A resident considering tourism investment needs a broader account of community value. Tourism Burnaby’s lead belongs to that second conversation, not a booking pitch.
Tourism Burnaby’s stakeholder video can be found in the video library of Creamy Animation.
Tourism Burnaby’s video describes tourism’s economic impact through three visitor situations. The intended audience is residents and stakeholders who need to understand the local role of tourism. It is not primarily an invitation for visitors to book a trip.
A family attending the Halloween festival introduces direct spending. The video says overnight guests spend about $300 per person per day and that tourism produces more than $730 million in direct output. A clean energy conference introduces indirect impact with a stated figure of $330 million. A ringette championship introduces induced impact through jobs, wages and taxes with a stated figure of $220 million.
Their role in the example is to support three different economic concepts.
I consider a video like this for a destination organization’s stakeholder page or a community presentation. The runtime is 2:55. The production lesson is to give each abstract concept a distinct visitor situation. Other tourism organizations can use that structure while checking the definitions and evidence behind their own figures. Keep direct, indirect and induced effects clearly distinguished. A viewer should understand what each category means rather than simply remember a large total.
A hotel guest has a digital key but needs to understand where it works and how to share it. Recognizing the app is not the same as knowing the access tasks it supports. A how-to can connect the phone with the places the guest needs to enter.
Hilton covers the room, gym, elevators and parking along with key sharing. Without that account, a guest may understand one use while remaining uncertain about another access point.
The task is immediate and guest-facing. Tourism Burnaby’s economic message cannot serve the same purpose because it addresses a community question. These contrasting examples show how the hotel or destination setting alone does not determine the content.
Hilton walks through using its Honors app to open the room, gym, elevators and parking and to share a key. It addresses guests using Digital Key during a stay. Hospitality teams can learn from covering the related access tasks a guest may encounter beyond the first door.
A host hears about a protection program and wants to know what the offer represents. Guest-facing travel promotion does not answer that partner question. An introduction needs to connect the program with the people it is intended to support.
Airbnb presents AirCover as a host protection program developed from feedback and included free. Without a program overview, hosts may recognize the name without understanding why it was introduced or who it serves.
The practical terms require their own current context. This example serves a different audience from Hilton’s app instructions even though both concern participation in a hospitality service.
Airbnb introduces AirCover as a host protection program built from host feedback and included free. The audience is hosts considering the program. It is not guests planning a stay. Give partners their own product context instead of adapting a traveller-facing message.
A traveller encounters a border process before understanding which route or program applies. A kiosk procedure and a trusted-traveller program are different subjects, even when both relate to crossing the border. Video can make those distinctions concrete.
Toronto Pearson describes kiosks replacing a paper declaration for specified passport holders. The CBSA’s NEXUS video addresses benefits across air, land and boat crossings. When the distinction is unclear, people can confuse a procedure at one location with membership in a separate program.
The two examples also differ from Hilton’s in-stay task. Here the service context and eligibility matter before the traveller acts. Current official requirements remain necessary alongside any historical video reference.
Toronto Pearson describes automated passport-clearance kiosks replacing paper declarations for eligible U.S. and Canadian passport holders. It addresses travellers encountering that airport procedure. The lesson is to identify the applicable traveller group alongside the process being introduced.
The CBSA covers NEXUS benefits when crossing by air, land or boat. It introduces the program across several travel settings. The takeaway: make the program’s range understandable. Keep it distinct from a single airport procedure.
Residents hear that tourism investment will benefit their community and want to understand the connection. Visitor promotion alone does not show how investment relates to local economies or infrastructure. Stakeholder content has to address the place people live in rather than simply invite a trip.
Destination British Columbia brings community leaders, Indigenous partners and tourism professionals into that discussion. If the account is not locally grounded, tourism’s value can remain a general assertion detached from community concerns.
Tourism Burnaby’s lead uses visitor situations to introduce economic categories. The Destination BC example approaches the wider community-development question through people involved in it. Both place the audience outside an immediate booking decision.
Destination British Columbia brings together community leaders, Indigenous partners and tourism professionals to discuss how tourism investment supports local economies and infrastructure. It speaks to people considering destination development. Make community roles visible within the account of investment.
A visitor is preparing to spend time outdoors and needs to understand the consequences of neglecting the place. Destination promotion may create interest without addressing behaviour during the visit. A separate educational message can give that responsibility a memorable form.
Visit Longmont uses an animated blue moose and a song about what happens when visitors do not care for the outdoors. A destination’s invitation that lacks visitor education can leave stewardship outside the travel message.
This differs from an access tutorial or an economic-impact video. The audience already has a relationship with the destination as a visitor. The subject is how that presence affects the outdoors, not how to book or why the sector contributes economically.
Visit Longmont uses an animated blue moose singing about the consequences of visitors failing to care for the outdoors. The message addresses visitor responsibility. The lesson for destination teams is to give behavioural education its own recognizable creative treatment. Keep it separate from a general travel promotion.
Send practical information when the guest can act on it. Arrival directions, access instructions and preparation questions may belong before the journey or shortly before check-in. Choose the timing according to the task.
I keep an arrival video easy to revisit on a phone. If physical recognition matters, use accurate current imagery of the relevant place. Keep changeable details maintainable and ensure the written instructions remain available when a guest cannot play the video.
Separate information that helps someone prepare from information they need while completing an action. A longer preparation video may be appropriate before travel. A guest standing at an access point needs a much narrower instruction. The same service can justify both forms.
Check the video in the setting where it will be used. Small text and long introductions can become more difficult to use on a phone during a journey. Make the task recognizable from the title and keep the relevant instruction easy to revisit. The guest should not need to search through promotional material for a practical answer.
Begin with the question residents are asking. Explain the relationship between visitor activity and the community rather than assuming tourism’s value is self-evident. Keep the scope of any economic claim explicit.
Tourism Burnaby’s three situations give distinct concepts their own context. I preserve that separation in a similar script. Check the definitions, period and source of each figure before production. A clear story should help people interpret the evidence rather than replace it.
Avoid assuming that all audiences interpret economic terms the same way. Define the category before introducing its figure. Keep the relationship between visitor activity and the stated effect explicit so viewers can follow the reasoning.
A community video should also identify the perspective of the organization presenting it. Tourism Burnaby’s video describes value through selected visitor situations. Those situations organize the message. They do not remove the need to check the underlying figures when preparing a new publication. Use the story to make the categories understandable and the supporting material to establish their measurement context.
Choose guest action or stakeholder understanding. Hilton’s key instructions need successful use at an access point. Tourism Burnaby’s economic categories need comprehension in a community discussion. They require different evidence of success.
Distinguish a host evaluating a protection program from a guest using an app. Border-service content needs its own traveller context. Do not assume that a shared travel setting gives everyone the same immediate question.
Use current service terminology for access tasks. Attribute company and economic claims to their sources. In community material, define the economic category before introducing the number so the audience can interpret the relationship.
Related reading: explainer videos guide.
Check guest-facing text on a phone-sized player. Physical access may require location recognition, while community investment needs relationships and categories. Choose the view from the task instead of a general destination aesthetic.
Related reading: explainer video cost.
Place practical instructions where guests can revisit them during travel. Keep host terms and official border guidance nearby where applicable. Stakeholder videos belong beside the local context and evidence supporting their account.
Send the video when the information becomes practical and the guest still has time to act. Some instructions belong before travel. Others belong near arrival. Keep a stable location where the guest can find the video again.
Use footage when guests need to recognize a physical place or object. Animation can clarify an app process, relationship or abstract concept. The right choice depends on the question being answered, not a general rule for hotels.
They can introduce a destination-related issue, describe tourism’s role or prepare visitors to participate responsibly. Tourism Burnaby’s example is aimed at stakeholders. That purpose differs from promoting a trip to potential visitors.
Explain what the figure measures and identify its scope and period when available. Keep categories distinct. Claims quoted from a video should remain attributed until the underlying evidence has been checked for a new publication.
Guest instructions should be short, often under a minute. Stakeholder and community videos can run longer because the viewer is weighing an investment or a policy.
Send it before arrival by email or in an app, and place it where the task happens, such as a kiosk or a room screen.
It is usually better to make separate videos. Visitors want to know what to do. Residents want to know what tourism means for their community.
Use simple narration, clear visuals and subtitles. Instructions that rely on pictures and short words translate more easily than long voice-overs.
Choose the audience’s practical question before choosing the destination story. A practical travel explainer helps someone act with greater clarity or understand the place from a new perspective.
Larry is the founder and Chief Storyteller at Creamy Animation, founded in 2009. He leads a team that creates story-driven videos for businesses and nonprofits. 15+ years in video strategy and production, specializing in SaaS, B2B, and nonprofit storytelling. A marketer, designer, and animator, Larry has overseen the production of more than 1,500 videos for Fujitsu, Logitech, Warner Brothers, NFL, Blockdaemon, Astronomer, Canonical, and 370+ others.
For Larry, God is first, and everything else is a blessing that comes from serving Him. When he’s not working, he’s hanging out with his wife and three kids, playing the piano, or pursuing his filmmaking side hustle.
