Film Tourism

The medium of film creates a lasting impression with the viewer. Scenes of passion, action or landscapes spark an emotion that lasts much longer than the film itself.

To quote one of the most imaginative directors of last century, Stanley Kubrick: The screen is a magic medium. It has such power that it can retain interest as it conveys emotions and moods that no other art form can hope to tackle.

The inter-relationship between the imagination of film and the reality of landscape is an interesting mix. Although a director can call on any form of computer-generation to create a world, the basis of the creation is nearly always the tangibility of a real landscape.

The impact of geography in film is a result of the subject and how the landscape is revealed. However, it is present in every film to some degree.

The viaduct and train from Harry Potter
Death Valley in Zabriskie Point
The Devils Tower from Close Encounters of the Third Kind
The Swiss Alps in The Sound of Music
The Highlands of Scotland in Braveheart

The mention of these places create an image of the film in your mind – even if you have never been there. Your psyche is unconsciously programmed to expect a location to appear in reality the same as the celluloid image from film.

Reality television is the same – from Survivor to The Amazing Race – all present an environment mixed with a sentiment that incites a desire to discover the corresponding place and feel the same emotion as those in the film.

Whether a world is real or created differs little in the mind of the film-goer, if it is on film it has a basis of reality.

One of the most powerful books to create a landscape that only lived in imagination was The Lord of the Rings, where myth combined with consistent history and vast geographical panoramas. This blend created the second widest read book of the last century.

The successful translation of an imaginary Middle-earth into a 3-dimensional real world was achieved over an 8 year period by New Zealand director Peter Jackson and an immense team of enthusiasts. Their passion for the subject resulted in a trilogy of films that not only satisfied the true devotee but also introduced the books to an entirely new group.

The Lord of the Rings has created the largest film tourism event the world has ever scene. Thousands of people have flocked to Middle-earth Aoteoroa to follow in the footsteps of the hobbits and to bring back some of the emotions they felt when watching the film or reading the book.

The lessons learned from this influx are important to any company that is considering working with this genre. The principals are general and apply world-wide.

There are specific factors that will provide you with a successful film location tourism operation. Firstly, and most importantly, you must realise that your client will invariably know more about the destination as it appears in the film than you do. However, you must have a working knowledge yourself or you will never succeed.

As with any venture you must have all the attributes of a good tour operator – but more.

In the case of the Lord of the Rings in New Zealand I saw many operators starts Rings tours without ever reading the books, or even watching the films. Their desire was simple – jump on the band-wagon and supposedly make some quick cash. They lasted sometimes months – but mostly weeks.

The wrong spelling of an Elven name, the incorrect placing of a scene in a location, poor knowledge of the subject very quickly led to their demise. The client could see straight though them – even though many had never been to New Zealand before or had a minimal knowledge of our real geography or history – they knew the subject that they loved.

The integration of your product into that of the film location you are visiting is very important.

A company based in Christchurch is now offering tours to locations from The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. Successful with the Lord of the Rings Tours they have created another series of tours from their winning formula. What is that formula – knowledge of the product, knowledge of the real landscape and an intimate knowledge of the films.

That is the majority of the market, however it is interesting to note that the success of film tourism in NZ has led to many clients taking a Rings tour as part of the Kiwi experience. They may have not seen the film but they know people in their home country that have and want to share this familiarity.

The Lord of the Rings is one of those films that will have tourism longevity, similar to The Sound of Music and some of the others I mentioned before. Many will appeal for months or years but it is a select few that will last for decades. It is interesting to note that 3 years after the release of the Lord of the Rings films my location guide-books are selling just as well. To date over 300,000 copies – one of the five best selling books in NZ history.

Not every country will have a Lord of the Rings filmed in their back-yard but the opportunity to create a new tourist opportunity with a ready client base cannot be underestimated.