Published on : Sunday, June 15, 2014
Cinema, over the years, has provided a solid platform to advertise tourist destinations, and has paved the way for opportunities in product expansion.
Some of these products include location tours, museums, and exhibitions showcasing famous merchandise from various films.
Film-induced tourism has slowly become a global phenomenon due to the fantastic development of the entertainment industry and an increase in international travel.
A film’s location can play a vital role in the storyline and trigger the audience’s emotions, enabling them to connect with their favorite characters.
The impact on tourism is usually greater in films that use rural settlements or historical landmarks as their backdrop.
They are often credited for revitalizing these urban villages and putting them on the tourism map.
Disney’s Frozen became a worldwide sensation shortly after it was released in theatres last year. It crossed the $1 billion benchmark to become the highest-grossing animated film of all time, and was recently dubbed by BBC news as the fifth-biggest film in box office history.
The popularity of the film can be gauged by the fact that there are Frozen-themed park rides at Disney World.
Now the animated feature is encouraging fans to visit Norway – the stunning location that inspired its backdrop.
Norway witnessed an immense rise in US tourists, with a 40% increase in ticket sales for this year’s first quarter compared to last year’s, according to US spokesperson for Visit Norway Harald Hansen.
He said their tour operators have calculated a 37% rise in booked hotels, and a 57% increase in arrivals from New York at the Oslo Airport during November and December, shortly after they started marketing with Disney.
VisitNorway.com witnessed its traffic nearly triple since the release of the film, while Flight Tracker reported a 153% increase in searches on Norwegian flights.
After successful trips to Scotland upon the release of Brave, Disney’s Tour Company, “Adventures by Disney,” has announced it will be taking fans on eight-day trips to Norway, with stopovers at Bergen and Geirangerfjord.
These places were used by art director Michael Giaimo as inspiration for the fictional kingdom of Arendelle.
The tickets are priced over $5,000 per person.
The Lord of the Rings trilogy is set within the fantasy world of Middle-Earth.
The films had an overall budget of $280 million, and were shot over a course of eight years in over 150 different locations across New Zealand, the native country of director Peter Jackson.
The hills of Matamata came to be known as “Hobbiton,” whereas the Mt. Ruapehu became “Mt. Doom.”
Upon its release, the trilogy proved to be a major critical and financial success, winning a total of 17 Oscars, and is considered by many as the highest-grossing film series of all time.
Many of the locations shown in the trilogy are preserved and have been transformed in order to encourage tourism.
The country witnessed a rise in tourists by 40%, from 1.7 million visitors in 2000 to 2.4 million in 2006, following the release of The Return of the King.
Almost 6% of international travellers credited the film as one of the reasons for their visit. Since the movie’s release, an average of 47,000 international travellers have visited a film site each year.
Peter Jackson brought back the world of Middle-Earth in The Hobbit trilogy, set 60 years prior to the Lord of the Rings.
After holding several talks with New Zealand President John Key, Warner Bros. executives decided to resume production in New Zealand.
Hence, locations like Aratiatia Spillway and Braemar Station were transformed into the fictional “Forest River” and “Laketown” while shooting.
The tourism industry made up about 3.7% of New Zealand’s GDP in 2013, and is the country’s second-largest industry in terms of revenues.
Air New Zealand purchased a total of 777 airplanes that are decorated in a classic Tolkienesque style, featuring their exclusive Middle-Earth safety precaution video.
Numbers released in June last year by Tourism New Zealand show an increase in international visitors to the country by 10% during the first four months of 2013, compared to the previous year.
Tags: Movies play catalysts, Tourism News
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