16.

0 Film tourism

The answer to becoming part of your favourite movie?

Karolina Tomala & Florence Faber

16.1 Introduction: Film tourism, a product produced by movies and

TV
The following chapter will introduce the reader into the relatively new and growing tourism
niche "Film Tourism" by giving you an overview of the whole topic. Film tourism can be
defined as a branch of cultural tourism (Zimmermann, 2003, p.76) and refers to the growing
interest and demand for locations wh ich became popular due to their appearance in films
and television series. In his interpretation, Zimmermann describes film tourism as all forms
2
of travelling to destinations, wh ich in general enable a connection with the world of film
(Zimmermann, 2003, p.76}.Further, it can be divided into three separate sub-categories,
4
including film promotion tourtsm'', travel film tourism and film induced tourism as
illustrated in the diagram below. The third category will be the main focus in this chapter. In
general, it is a journey which is stimulated by watching a movie that has a high impact on the
consumer decision making process. There are various reasons which turn people into film
tourists. The desire to:

• explore film parks, and film studios (e.g. Disneyland, Six Flags)
• visit locations that are directly associated with a particular film and have connection with
this movie
• go on a film journey wh ich offers them the possibility to descent into film worlds and
usesthe landscape as a recognition value (Zimmermann, 2003, p.S1).

However, defining the target market for film tourism seems to be achallenge since some
movies attract a broader part of the population (e.g. Da Vinci Code, The Lord of the Rings),
whereas others are watched only by those interested in a specific topic (e.g. Bollywood,
Western movies, love stories). In addition, film tourism is still an unexplored field which
provides little evidence and therefore has to be more extensively researched.

2" ( ... ) alle Formen des Reisensan Orte (...) die ganz generell Anschlüsse an die Welt, respektive Wirklichkeit,
von Filmen ermöglichen und den Einstieg in die Welt des Films erlauben."
'Film teams travel to different destinations in order to request aid money for their projects (Film und
Tourismus).
4 Travel into foreign countries wlth a film camera (Film und Tourismus)

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A. Papathanassis (Ed.), The Long TailofTourism,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-8349-6231-7_16,
e Gabler Verlag I Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH 2011
 Film
Tourtsm

Film promotion
Travel film tourism Film induced- tourism
teurlsm

Locatlons dlrectly The descent into the

Film parks, film by uslng the
assoclated wlth
film studios landscape as a
the movie reoognition value

Figure 16a: Film tourism segmentotion

Though in recent years specialists have realised that the media is an effective promotion
tool, given that customers have become quite resistant to usual advertising efforts (Roger
W. Riley, 1991, p.270) (00 you really read the spam in your postbox?). There are already
some examples indicating the positive impact of a movie's success on the corresponding
destination's visitor's numbers following the release of a film (Nichola Tooke, 1996, p.88).
Presumably, this has positive impacts on the local economy (e.g. hotels, restaurants). On the
other hand, there are also infrastructural challenges related to such a sudden visitor boost.
Attempting to deal with this situation, destination managers and tour operators always have
to keep in mind that destinations do not necessarily follow a continuously growing
development but at a sudden point will also face a decline in visitor numbers.

16.2 Market focus: The movieasthe basis of the target group's

characteristics
In general the target market for film tourism can be defined as "people who choose a tourist
destination due to its relationship with cinema (famous International Film Festivals,shooting
locations)" (CineSpace journalists, 2009) or television.

However, trying to define the target market in more detail turned out to be difficult.
Compared to other tourism niches, film tourism does not serve a specific target segment. In
fact, every movie has its own target market wh ich in itself differs to a certain extend
regarding its profile, behaviour and psychographics. Some destinations, characters or stories,
shown in movies or TV series, attract a bigger part of the population, such as those in the
"The Lord of the Rings", "The Da Vinci Code", "The Beach", "Australia" or "Sex and the City",
whereas others catch the attention of a smaller group, since they are movies published in a
smaller geographie area, e.g. a pre-school children's television programme calied "Balamory"
filmed on a Scottish island (Connell, 2005, p.763), the German TV show "die
Schwarzwaldklinik" which lures its viewers to the Black Forest and the French series "St,
Tropez" wh ich promotes the Cöte d'Azure as an attractive destination. So it is shown that
the size of the target segment may largely depend on the degree of awareness people have
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