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Countries
around the world have a new way
to
lure tourists to their shores. The tourist industry
has found that
visitors are inspired by films they have seen when choosing where to go on
holiday.
One country that is
certain of the effect of films on tourism is Australia. The Tourist Office
of Queensland say that Crocodile Dundee, starring Paul Hogan, made
Australia the popular destination it is today. In the three years after
Crocodile Dundee was
released,
visitor numbers
doubled. Many of the new tourists came from the US. ‘They were
fascinated that such a place could exist,’ says an Australian tourist
official.
Scotland's Tourist board are convinced that two films released in 1995,
Rob Roy and Braveheart,
helped increase
the number of visitors. In research
undertaken
the following year, they discovered that
one in every
five tourists in Scotland said that one of these films had made
them want to go there. ‘You get Liam Neeson running around in a
kilt and
suddenly
tartan is
the
in thing,’
says Morag McAteer, a Scottish hotelier.
But what makes people want to visit the place where a movie was filmed? In
many cases the reason is that the film
makes audiences
aware of the existence of a place. When the James Bond movie The
Man With The Golden Gun was filmed in Phuket, Thailand
most Westerners
had never heard of it. Today it is
a major destination.
Leonardo di Caprio's film The Beach has
boosted tourism in
another part of Thailand. The film is about the discovery of the most
idyllic beach in the world. As a result the Thai authorities are
facing a tourist
boom in the film's location, Koh Phi Phi.
Some people are influenced by a
movie's mood
as much as its location, especially if it is a romance. Romantic couples
are seen more often at the top of the Empire State building whenever
Sleepless in Seattle is
screened
in the US. Four Weddings and a Funeral has ensured that ‘The Crown’
hotel in Amersham has been
busy ever
since the movie was
first
shown. In
fact the bedroom where the characters played by Hugh Grant and Andie
McDowell spend their first night together is
booked for years
ahead. ‘We've lost count of the number of
marriage
proposals that have been made there,’ say the hotel management.
It is not just the
tourist boards
who are happy with the influence of films on a destination. Residents of a
rather
run-down
area of London have seen house prices almost double thanks to Julia
Robert's romance with Hugh Grant in Notting Hill. Film stars, such
as Madonna, who had previously thought of Notting Hill as a good place for
a party, have now
bought
property there. Perhaps they hope to revive their romances.
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