I was delighted to hear the confirmed announcement last week by Amazon Studios that their new mini-series set in Middle-earth will commence filming in New Zealand next year. Since I first read The Lord of the Rings almost fifty years ago, there was never any doubt that the world meticulously created by JRR Tolkien was my own home – New Zealand. With the release of the Peter Jackson directed The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit film trilogies, New Zealand was indelibly stamped as Middle-earth and the many thousands of film and book pilgrims that visit the country as a result of the films continues unabated. The promotion of the country alongside the films is an abject lesson in film tourism and has been cited in many scholarly publications to showcase how “set jetting” became mainstream. One could argue that despite winning 17 Academy Awards the most important omission was an award for the country itself. Film Production Another important facet of the series success has been the development of film production in New Zealand. Despite its relative isolation, the country has seen the growth of Weta Workshop from the small Wellington bedroom of Richard and Tania Taylor to […]
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Living in a world of social media and instant sharing, the travel guide is perceived by many to be a thing of the past. A dinosaur that has been replaced by the instant consumer review and obligatory selfie, denoting both a “this is where we are and this is what we thought” moment for the poster and all their friends. Unfortunately these type of posts and reviews often have no basis of fact or knowledge and can have a detrimental effect as the post spirals out into the cyberspace. However, technology has also delivered a new medium for the travel guide that allows tourism organisations to provide an authoritative platform that showcases a country, a county, a town or an attraction, with consumer interaction and social integration for the reader and user. The modern e-book has a number of benefits. It allows us to merge the content and the purpose of a traditional guide book with new technologies, new narrative concepts and dynamic, interactive content through handheld devices such as iPad, iPhone and HTML5. It provides a platform that immerses the user and reader into stories, histories, landscape and places by using moving images, animation, sound, photos, live interviews, samples […]
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