It's called "film tourism". The driving force of the cinema is increasingly central to the tourist business. It is a rapidly growing phenomenon worldwide and an important outlet in times of crisis. The fascination for the places described is very ancient: tourism to Verona began with Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" and the English Lake District became a travel destination already in the nineteenth century following the success of the English romantic poets, who praised the pristine landscapes. If poetry and literature have long acted as a driving force for the tourism industry, it was with the advent of cinema and television that this phenomenon exploded worldwide. In fact, audiovisual products forcefully impose images of distant and hitherto unknown places on the viewers' minds and act, as the experts report, as real tourist "markers". It is thanks to cinema, for example, that remote landscapes such as those in Australia and New Zealand have become popular with the general international public. Television and, in particular, television series that create familiarity with places, have also made a great contribution to the tourist "cause".
A spontaneous phenomenon. It is only recently, however, that the tourist industry has become aware of the potential offered by cinema and television. For a long time, the increase in tourism occurred spontaneously. Communities hosting film sets realized the immediate benefits in terms of increased business and new jobs created during filming. For example, the film "Secrets" starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Jessica Lange, shot in Illinois in 1997, generated $21 million in revenue and 183 jobs. However, it also fueled a constant flow of visitors who wanted to experience the places of the tragic story of the Cooke sisters in person. The tourist attraction also takes place in unsuspected films: the film "A quiet weekend of fear" (1972), with Burt Reynolds and Jon Voight, which narrates the terrible weekend of a group of friends at the mercy of two psychopaths, created a thriving adventure tourism business on the Chattooga River, Georgia, with 20 visitors and $3 million in annual income.
Long-term benefits. The attraction to film locations is not fleeting. Thanks to “The Bridges of Madison County” (1995, based on the book of the same name by Robert James Waller), with Meryl Streep and Clint Eastwood, the region, according to Doug Hawley, director of the local Chamber of Commerce, lives with dignity even in these periods of crisis. According to recent studies, part of the tourist flows to Wyoming is still due to "The Knight of the Lonely Valley", a 1953 western starring Alan Ladd. More than thirty years after the theatrical release of "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" (1977), a fifth of visits to the Devil's Tower National Monument are generated by the memory of Steven Spielberg's masterpiece. Finally, between 1981 and 1988 tourism to Australia galloped at a rate of 20% year-on-year growth, thanks to the Mad Max saga, with Mel Gibson, and the three "Crocodile Dandee" films (1986, 1988 and 2001) with Paul Hogan.
Conscious promotion. It is precisely with "Crocodile Dundee" that we are witnessing one of the first conscious exploitations of a cinematographic success. Immediately after the global boom of the first film, actor Paul Hogan was in fact hired by the Australian tourism body to promote the nation as a tourist destination. "Throw another shrimp on the barbie", or "Put another shrimp on the barbecue" has become the successful slogan of an advertising campaign that has brought crowds of visitors to the country-continent. Since then, tourist boards have become increasingly active on the Hollywood front. It's no secret that the Aussie invested heavily in Buz Lurhman's “Australia” (2008) starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman, but it turned out to be a box office flop. Even the most famous names in the film industry do not hold back in front of tourist promotion agencies. Woody Allen, for example, has entered into an economic agreement with the Barcelona tourism board for his film “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” (2008) shot in the Catalan city.
A growing phenomenon. Many tourism organizations are now trying to attract film productions, knowing that they will create short and long-term benefits. The popular distrust towards the film and television industry (the famous case of the community of Avalon Beach, in Australia, which had the troupe of the TV series "Baywatch" removed because it disturbed the serenity of the village) has now vanished. A recent survey in New Zealand, for example, indicates that 70% of respondents believe it is important to host a film in their area to boost the local economy. Along with providing locations, logistics and tax rebates, the various tourism bodies try to promote other activities related to the film industry, such as the so-called "film tourism pilgrimage", i.e. real pilgrimages to filming locations, perhaps with "re- enactment”, i.e. experiences in costume that recall episodes or characters from the most loved films.
Importance of TV. Apart from cinema, TV is also an integral part of this phenomenon. Today various British organizations promote tourist packages called "Eastenders breaks", from the popular soap opera set in London, or "In the Footsteps of Brother Cadfael", wanderings on the places of investigations (first in books and then on television) of the popular Father Cadfael, a medieval monk busy solving mysteries in the first half of the twelfth century at Shrewsbury Abbey in western England. To contribute to the tourism of a depressed post-September 11 New York was, for example, a "Sex and the City Tour" promptly set up to take advantage of the popularity of the well-known television series which sees the love and work (and shopping) adventures of four friends in the Big Apple. Even in Italy we are not watching. The Puglia Film Commission has struck an agreement with the soap opera "Beautiful" (seen in 100 countries, with 45 million viewers) to film the wedding between two audience favorites, Liam and Hope, in Alberobello. Waiting for the arrival of "pilgrims", better if wealthy, from all over the world.
