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Film tourism

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(Redirected from Setjetting)

Film tourism, sometimes called film-induced tourism, set-jetting, or location-vacation, is a specialized or niche form of tourism in which visitors explore locations and destinations connected with films and television series.,[1] tour production studios, or visit media-related theme parks.[2]

Tourists on a "James Bond tour" of Khao Phing Kan island in Thailand, visiting a filming location of the 1974 film The Man with the Golden Gun

The term set-jetting, referring to the trend of traveling to destinations that were filming locations,[3] was the headline of a 2007 New York Post article on the subject by Gretchen Kelly.[4] It has become one of the biggest trends in travel.[5]

Examples include touring London in a high-speed boat as in the James Bond films, or visiting the stately homes that are seen in the Jane Austen adaptations. The term is a play on jet-setting, a form of luxury travel in upper-class society.

Overview

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Film-induced tourism is one of the fastest-growing sectors in tourism currently.[6] It emerged as a prominent form of tourism in the 1990s. Before its emergence as a unique driver of the tourism industry, there were brief mentions of the phenomenon of film tourism by academics and anecdotal mentions.

In 1996, the British Tourism Association became the first tourism agency to capitalize on film tourism by publishing a map of Great Britain with movie locations marked on it.[7]

This increasing popularity of film tourism is due to the rise of international travel, the rapid growth of the entertainment industry, and cult-like celebrity status.[8]

For destinations, films provide long-term tourism revenue. The appearance of a particular area in a film or television can have a huge effect on the number of visitors of an already existing place and create a new kind of tourism to the area and generate a boost for the local economy. On average, a film can increase tourism and revenue by almost 31%.[9]

In New Zealand, fans of The Lord of The Rings movie series visit New Zealand, where most of the movie scenes were shot. The movies increased the annual tourist influx to New Zealand from US$1.7 million in 2000 to US$2.4 million in 2004, a 40 percent surge.[10][11]

In Britain, the Alnwick Castle, where the scenes for the movie Harry Potter were shot had experienced a 120% increase in visitor numbers which brought an estimated £9 million worth tourist revenue to the area.[12] One of the most prominent examples of film-induced demand is London King's Cross railway station, which was made famous for featuring a fictional section known as platform 9 3/4 in the Harry Potter movie series, first appearing in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. This fictional location was made into a real attraction in order to entice tourists to visit the train station, and a Harry Potter souvenir shop was constructed to capitalise on the increased interest in the series and the station.

Several regression analyses suggest a high correlation between destinations taking a proactive approach in order to encourage producers/studios to film at their location, and the tourism success in the area after the release of the movie.[13] This is consistent with induced demand theory. When the supply increases, in the form of media exposure to areas that were not regarded as tourist hotspots, the number of visitors increases, even though the majority of these new visitors would not have necessarily visited these areas previously. This is exemplified by a Travelsat Competitive Index study that indicated that in 2017 alone, approximately 80 million tourists made the decision to travel to a destination based primarily on its feature in a television series or film. This figure has doubled since 2015.[citation needed]

An analysis of the use of Geospatial technologies in set jetting was proposed by Thierry Joliveau in The Cartographic Journal.[14] Corporations, convention and tourism boards followed the trend that year, creating their own set-jetting travel maps, like the Elizabeth: The Golden Age movie map published by VisitBritain.[15][16]

In June 2018, Maya Beach, made famous by Danny Boyle's 2000 film The Beach, was closed indefinitely to allow it to recover from the ecological damage of mass tourism.[17] The beach received up to 5,000 tourists and 200 boats a day.[17] The beach has since reopened, however visitors aren't allowed to swim in the water, but are allowed to wade in knee deep. These measures aim to protect the marine life and eco-system.[18]

Locations

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Agios Ioannis chapel, wedding scene from the filming of Mamma Mia! on Skopelos

Notable movie and television series filming locations that have become popular tourist destinations because of that include:

Movie/ TV series Location City or country
The Lord of the Rings New Zealand
Braveheart Wallace Monument Scotland
The Fault in Our Stars (film) a wooden bench on the Leidsegracht The Netherlands
Harry Potter Alnwick Castle, others UK
Pride and Prejudice Lyme Park England
The Beach Thailand
Sex and the City New York, United States
Game of Thrones Northern Ireland, Iceland, Dubrovnik
Dimmuborgir; Mývatn; Grjótagjá; Reynisfjara[19] Iceland
The Hangover Las Vegas, United States
Downton Abbey Bampton UK
Broadchurch West Bay UK
Lost in Translation Tokyo, Japan
Mamma Mia! Skopelos Greece
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade Petra Jordan
The Sound of Music Salzburg, Austria
The Talented Mr. Ripley Ischia Italy
Monty Python and the Holy Grail Doune Castle Scotland
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope Hotel Sidi Driss Tunisia
The Dark Knight Rises Mehrangarh Fort Jodhpur, India
The Godfather Sicily, Italy
Joker Joker Stairs New York City
Zorba the Greek Crete[20] Greece
Captain Corelli's Mandolin Cephalonia[21] Greece
Never on Sunday Piraeus[22] Greece

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Zimmermann, Stefan (2003). "'Reisen in den Film' – Filmtourismus in Nordafrika". In Egner, Heike (ed.). Tourismus - Lösung oder Fluch?: die Frage nach der nachhaltigen Entwicklung peripherer Regionen. Geographisches Institut, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz. pp. 75–83. ISBN 978-3-88250-208-4.
  2. ^ Beeton, Sue (2005). Film-induced Tourism. Channel View Publications. p. 270. ISBN 978-1-84541-014-8.
  3. ^ "Set Jetting, Location Vacations, Book Tourism & Detective Travel". Cosy Pursuits. 2017-06-17. Retrieved 2017-07-01.
  4. ^ Gretchen Kelly (2007-02-20). "Set Jetting". New York Post. Retrieved 2025-05-10.
  5. ^ Danial Adkinson (2025-05-09). "'Set-Jetting' Turns Fiction Into Real, Often Expensive, Vacations". New York Times. Retrieved 2025-05-10.
  6. ^ Berning, Leonie (20 May 2019). "Exploring the Benefits of Film Tourism". tourismtattler.com. Retrieved 10 September 2020.[unreliable source?]
  7. ^ "50 Years Timeline - 1990 to 1999". visitbritian.org. 4 June 2019. Archived from the original on 5 December 2020. Retrieved 10 September 2020.
  8. ^ Hudson, Simon; Ritchie, J. R. Brent (July 2006). "Film tourism and destination marketing: The case of Captain Corelli's Mandolin". Journal of Vacation Marketing. 12 (3): 256–268. doi:10.1177/1356766706064619. S2CID 154626650.
  9. ^ "Popular Movies Can Increase Tourism to the Film's Location between 25%-300% | Champion Traveler". Champion Traveler.[self-published source?]
  10. ^ Gilsdorf, Ethan (9 November 2006). "Cities both big and small are offering tours of film locations". USA Today. Archived from the original on 26 October 2012.
  11. ^ Croy, W. Glen (2017). The Lord of the Rings, New Zealand, and tourism: image building with film (Report). doi:10.4225/03/5935fd34eb884.
  12. ^ Luty, J. "Annual revenue from Warner Bros. Studios Tour London - 'The Making of Harry Potter' tour from 2012 to 2018". statista.com. Retrieved 25 May 2020.
  13. ^ Hudgson & Richie (1 May 2006). "Film tourism and destination marketing: The case of Captain Corelli's Mandolin". Journal of Travel Research. doi:10.1177/0047287506286720. S2CID 59390486.
  14. ^ Joliveau, Thierry (2009-02-01). "Connecting Real and Imaginary Places through Geospatial Technologies: Examples from Set-jetting and Art-oriented Tourism". The Cartographic Journal. 46 (1): 36–45. Bibcode:2009CartJ..46...36J. doi:10.1179/000870409X415570. ISSN 0008-7041. S2CID 129927578.
  15. ^ "Movie Map". visitbritain.com. 2016-06-21. Archived from the original on 17 June 2008.
  16. ^ "Elizabeth the Golden Age" (PDF). visitBritain.com/thegoldenage. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 February 2009.
  17. ^ a b Ellis-Petersen, Hannah (2018-10-03). "Thailand bay made famous by The Beach closed indefinitely". The Guardian. Retrieved 2018-10-25.
  18. ^ Bush, Austin (2022-01-06). "Thailand's iconic Maya Beach reopens with new sustainability efforts". Lonely Planet.
  19. ^ Torfadóttir, Áslaug (2019-04-28). "Top Game Of Thrones Iceland Shooting Locations - Our Guide". Iceland Travel. Retrieved 2020-09-10.
  20. ^ Assadourian, Romy (2009). Greece: lights, camera ... travel! : analysis on the process of attracting foreign filmmakers and the way their films can contribute to strengthen a destination brand: the case of Greece (Thesis). OCLC 430805619.
  21. ^ Hudson, Simon; Ritchie, J. R. Brent (July 2006). "Film tourism and destination marketing: The case of Captain Corelli's Mandolin". Journal of Vacation Marketing. 12 (3): 256–268. doi:10.1177/1356766706064619. ProQuest 195807675.
  22. ^ Moira, Polyxeni; Mylonopoulos, Dimitrios; Kontoudaki, Aikaterini (May 2009). Using Films as a Tourism Promotional Tool: The Case of Greece (PDF). International Conference on Impact of Movies and Television on Tourism. Hong Kong. S2CID 211248022.
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