Bulletin

Issue: October 2005

News

Do films really attract tourists?

SueBeeton's latest book poses the difficult question: Do films attract tourists to the place they portray? Many tourism publicists believe the answer is yes but they may often be wrong!

In her latest book, Film-Induced Tourism, (Channel View Publications, 2005), Dr Beeton, a senior lecturer in Tourism at La Trobe University, questions whether people are attracted to a place because a film or television series made it well known.

In many instances, this is certainly true, particularly with some highly successful Australian and New Zealand films. But in others, she says, it raises the question as to whether films really 'induce' tourism or merely give people something else to think about while at a place.

Based on more than five years of research and a lifetime of travel and film immersion, the book examines the passion to travel to places touched by movies and television series.

From the Yorkshire Moors and Heartbeat to New York's Sex in the City tours, Dr Beeton tracks how some 35 television series and more than 73 feature films have influenced tourism and the communities in which they are based.

She believes that The Man from Snowy River, Crocodile Dundee and Mad Max of the 1980s definitely played a part in increasing tourism to Australia, particularly from North America. The two Man from Snowy River movies undoubtedly helped the adventure horse riding industry in Victoria's High Country. Before the first film there were three such businesses. Ten years later there were 30.

As well, The Lord of the Rings-inspired tourism promotion in New Zealand also worked well, attracting many visitors to New Zealand. Other examples are tourism amusement parks which depend on cinema characters in Australia, the USA and Europe.

However, Film-Induced Tourism, believed to be the first definitive work on the influence on tourism of movies and television series, points out that the level of influence many films have is often questionable.

Dr Beeton probes deeply into the complexities of why people really want to visit places of filming. She investigates what are often only-hinted-at reasons for visiting film sites, proposing that the 'Cult of Celebrity' extends to the places themselves.

'Peeling back the layers of the imagination in film and tourism' - particularly with The Lord of the Rings and animation including Lilo and Sitch and Finding Nemo - her research combines the disciplines of sociology and psychology, with those of destination marketing, community development and strategic planning.