Film Induced Tourism: A significant review of The Film Tourist, The Gaze and the aspect of Authenticity

Film Induced Tourism has become a main feature on the calendar of popular culture in recent years. Film Tourism, informally known as 'set jetting' is where travellers visit the locations of popular films and has been identified by Travel Mole as a growth area for UK tourism. According to Hudson and Ritchie (2006), film tourism is defined as tourist visits to a destination or attraction as a result of the destination being featured on television, video, or the cinema screen. Film tourism is a growing phenomenon worldwide, fueled by both the growth of the entertainment industry and the increase in international travel, and in addition research shows the main motive for this type of holiday is purely for entertainment and enjoyment and therefore for some, may provide a sense of excitement or a thrill. Important features of this particular type of holiday to some include the aspect of reality. In addition, a favourable quote from Margaret Hodge, Minister for Film and Tourism reads "that people seek to relive their favourite movie moments."

Of course, it is often argued that the majority of the locations and special sites only become popular tourist appeals because of the film created on site. Riley and Van Doren, (1992), cf Macionis N, (2004) argue: "Although it is recognised that films are not produced with the purpose of inducing tourism visitation, it is commonly accepted that feature films, seen by mass audiences, can indeed enhance the awareness of the locations in the film, as well as the appeal of these tourist destinations". BBC News gave evidence of this with Harry Potter, The Da Vinci Code and TV series Pride and Prejudice which identified an increased visitation to those production setting locations. In addition, Hall (2003) introduces the aspect of authenticity within Film Tourism. He states that authenticity is one of the key motivational factors for tourists and film tourism, for instance, is one medium that allows people to live out their fantasies of their favorite movies or actors in sometimes mythical places.

Furthermore researchers believe that authenticity, existential authenticity, sincerity, hyperreality and simulacra are all overlapping concepts often used in accounting for the tourist experience. The aspect of 'on-location' and 'off-location' determines whether such sites become very much inauthentic. According to Beeton S, (2004) in terms of 'authenticity', on-location sites are not necessarily authentic, in that many places are filmed in such a way that they appear quite different from 'real life', or may even be presented as a completely different site. The term off-location, relates to filming undertaken in a set constructed within the confines of the production unit, away from a naturally-occurring setting such as a town, coastal area or desert, and at first glance may be considered to be totally in-authentic, yet for the post-tourists, are quite 'real'. In contrast to MacCannell (1999), who believes that tourists desire authenticity, Urry, (1990) argues that tourists understand that it is impossible to have an authentic tourist experience and in fact enjoy inauthentic activities.

Inducement for this particular type of tourism is often closely in conjunction with tourism motivation. Dann (1981) proposes that there are two stages in one's decision to travel: push factors and pull factors. Researchers often refer to the push factors as the needs and the wants of the traveller and are therefore the reasons why people want to escape from their normal habitat. Pull factors are referred to the motives for visiting certain destinations. Macionis (2004) furthers this by stating that it is anticipated that there are a diverse range of push factors associated with visiting film sites including fantasy, escape, status and prestige, search for self concept or identity, ego enhancement, as well as a sense of partaking in a vicarious experience. He also argues, people are not only drawn to the places that form the settings and landscapes for feature films, but they may also be drawn to particular stories and genres, that is the drama of the plot, the elements of the theme and the experiences of the people in the film.

A critical internal driver, or push motivation in film induced tourism is the 'tourist gaze' in terms of film, constructing a gaze for an individual to observe (Urry, 1990 cf Macionis N, 2004). Research shows the gaze is often directed by anticipation and imagination, by the promotional narratives of the tourism industry, by cultural stereotypes and ones expectations. Urry believes places are chosen to be gazed upon because there is anticipation, especially through daydreaming and fantasy. Such anticipation is constructed and sustained through a variety of non-tourist practices, such as film and TV which construct and reinforce that gaze. Furthermore a term closely linked with the tourist gaze is the 'photographic gaze' which is often referred to capturing the moment of one's experience and according to Urry is the most important tourist activity within Film Induced Tourism.

References

Hudson, S. and Ritchie, J.R.B. (2006). Film tourism and destination marketing: The case of
Captain Corelli's Mandolin. Journal of Vacation Marketing, Vol. 12, Issue 3

Macionis, N. (2004). Understanding the Film Induced Tourist. International Tourism and Media Conference Proceedings. Melbourne: Tourism Research Unit, Monash University publishing

Beeton, S. (2004). Film Induced Tourism. Channel View publishing

Urry, J. (1990). The Tourist Gaze: Leisure and Travel in Contemporary Societies, London

This conference paper shows excellent organisation and well thought ideas throughout. The secondary research has been conducted well in order to achieve the aim of this topic with the relevant authors. The topic indicates an interesting introduction to film induced tourism which caught my attention as I have extreme interest within film tourism. It is also clear that this paper relates to this strand of sense and sensibility with references to the tourist gaze and authenticity.

The author has covered the key issues of the motivational factors through Dann's (1981) push and pull factors as to why tourists decide to travel and why they are attracted to film induced tourism, this has also been linked to Urry's (2002) tourist gaze.
The paper indicates that the tourist gaze can be adapted to film induced tourism with the photographic gaze, but does not mention one other type of the tourist gaze which has significance to the film tourism industry. This is the romantic gaze, Urry (2002) states that the romantic gaze is looking at nature and the natural beauty of a destination, but this can also be adapted to romance within a film, such as Mamma Mia, located in Skopelos in Greece, not only is there natural beauty of the island but also the romantic and happy story which encourages people to visit there every year and re-live the favourite movie moments (Farrington-Darby, 2010). Also since the film Titanic was launched; the cruise industry has seen an increase in consumers which can also be related to the romantic gaze (Beeton, 2005).

The highlights of this paper are the factual evidence that film induced tourists are becoming ever more popular and plays a great role in today's society (Beeton, 2005) but the film must have a box office success in order to create interest for the viewers and the need / want to travel to where the movie was filmed (Bolan and Williams, 2008). The Film and TV are high impact popular cultural media products when it comes to tourist consumer behaviour. The influence of film and TV is expected to grow, particularly film, and take over the role formerly held by literature (Kozak and Decrop, 2008).

In conclusion, film induced tourism will continue to grow as more films are produced in different locations and destinations. This conference paper has successfully investigated and gathered the relevant information to establish the topic of film induced tourism, which has been fully explained whilst referring to the authenticity of film destinations and to the motivations of travel behaviour. Overall, this is a well written paper which covers the key significant factors of this topic.


References -

Beeton, S. (2005) Film-Induced tourism. Clevedon: Channel View Publications.

Bolan, P. and Williams, L. (2008). The Role of image in service promotion: focusing on the influence of film and consumer choice within the tourism. International Journal of Consumer Studies.

Farrington-Darby, N. (2010). Mamma Mia inspires holidays in Greece. Island News

Kozak, M, and Decrop, A. (2008) Handbook of tourist behaviour: Theory and practise. Taylor and Francis: New York

I choose this paper as it caught my eye as I think that film tourism is very interesting. I realise it's not in my strand and isn't particularly connected to my discussion paper, however my own paper about adventure tourism is often a quest for authenticity, which this discussion paper is about. The notion of authenticity in tourism is linked to essays I've done previously.

This discussion paper is very good as it investigates how tourists more frequently travel to destinations where a movie has taken place. It's possible to say that the tourists who go to these places are tourists who want to experience something different, something which is not possibly created by guide books (Law et al 2007).

I think it's interesting you have taken the authenticity approach in this paper, as it's true that post-modern tourist often accept that most experiences and holidays are in fact inauthentic. Authenticity in tourism is linked to MacCannell's notion of 'staged authenticity', where 'frontstages' are staged to create a sense of authenticity (Law et al 2007). This has meant that there is a rise in these commodified sites, which can be linked to film tourism. According to the post-modern tourism, the notion of authenticity is less important, and that they don't mind that their experience is a reproduction of something else (Featherstone, 1995: 99). A post-modern tourist often know that it's almost impossible to get an absolute authentic experience, and know that it's not possible to go back in time to where an item or object was from, which further proves it's almost impossible to get an absolute authentic experience (Urry, 1990: 100-101). It's possible to link this together to film tourism, as you mention in your paper, since it's often not possible to go back to where a movie was set and will be seen as completely different when visiting. It's also important to remember that the tourists have a knowledge that the sites they visit due to a film is in fact fiction, which means they realise they won't get a complete authentic experience (Macionis 2004). Film tourism is also linked to hyper-reality, where a model and reality are confused. The film tourist has learned to accept hyper-real experiences, instead of an authentic experience (Macionis 2004).

I thought this paper was really well structured and showed a good sense of understanding of the subject. I thought it was interesting to link film tourism to push and pull factors, however it would have been good to see a further analysis of the notion of Place, Performance and Personality which can proved to be useful in terms of film tourism motivations (Macionis 2004).

To conclude I really enjoyed reading this paper as it gave me knowledge of film tourism and how it's connected to the tourism gaze. I thought the notion of authenticity and push and pull factors were well investigated, and I really liked that you brought along a few examples where film tourism is important.

References:

Featherstone, M. (1995) Undoing Culture - Globalization, Postmodernism and Identity, London: SAGE Publications Ltd.

Law, L., Bunnell, T., Ong, C-E. (2007) The Beach, the Gaze and Film Tourism, Tourist Studies 7 (2) 141-164.

Macionis, N. (2004) Understanding the Film-Induced Tourist, International Tourism and Media Conference Proceedings, Melbourne: Tourism Research Unit, Monash University 86-97.

Urry, J. (1990) The Tourist Gaze, London: SAGE Publications Ltd.

This paperwork about Film- induced tourism covers all important issues which are raised in this context, they were either researched carefully or mentioned at the very least. These issues include for example the tourist gaze, authenticity, the difference between on- and off-location tourism, the influence on a destination image and others. Given this variety of different factors which must be considered it is obvious how complex this rather new part of the tourism industry is. This can only be discussed by someone with a good knowledge on the particular topic, which the author obviously has. So this paper provides interesting points of view of several experts on the topic like Beeton, Macionis, Urry and others.

Very interesting is the distinction of the traveller's motivations to become a set jetter and visit former film locations between pull and push factors (Dann, 1981). To my mind, especially the mention of visiting a film sites in relation to identity and ego enhancement as a push factor is interesting because I focused on this aspect in my conference paper as well as on nostalgia. This shows that there are different influences (like to what extent the viewers think that the representation on screen is real) and reasons why people go to these places and express the desire to become film tourists and escape the "real world" (Young and Young, 2008).

More specific examples for the research results would have made this paperwork even better in my opinion. For example mentioning the movie "Braveheart" in relation to authenticity would have been useful because the movie plot is situated in Scotland whereas the film was shot in Ireland which can lead to challenges for both destinations obviously in terms of a "real" experience and a longing for authenticity (Bolan and Williams, 2008). I like the approach of the author to focus on different opinions because, according to Urry (1990) even "unauthentic" experiences on film sites seem attractive to tourists because they still have the feeling of being as close as possible to relive their favourite movies/ movie scenes. For example film locations of fictional stories like Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings attract many tourists even though there is no way of being a "real wizard" or "Hobbit" (Young and Young, 2008).
As mentioned in the report, the awareness of a destination is clearly raised (Riley and Van Doren, 1992; Beeton, 2005) once it has been represented on screen for instance in TV series or movies for a certain time after the release, usually up until four years (Young and Young, 2004).

Also, it is mentioned that the overall idea of film induced tourism becomes more important because more people chose to travel to film sites and become part of the cultural landscape (Jewell, McKinnon, 2008) since the role of globalisation of the movie industry grows and promotes the destinations as well (Beeton, 2005; Bolan and Williams, 2008).


References


Beeton, S. (2005). Film-Induced Tourism. Clevedon: Channel View Publications.

Bolan, P.; Williams, L. (2008). The role of image in service promotion: focusing on the influence of film on consumer choice within tourism. International Journal of Consumer Studies, 32, 382-390.

Young, A. F; Young, R. (2008). Measuring the Effects of Film and Television on Tourism to Screen Locations: A Theoretical and Empirical Perspective. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 24, (2-3), 195-212.