Film/TV Tourism

New research by VisitBritain has been published on film and TV locations as holiday destination choices. It provides data on visitor type, market and gender as well as the extent to which a film or TV location influenced visitors' choice of trip destination. For interest, here's a map of tv show locations in the UK and also a global list of film locations, where well-known movies were made around the world. Rough Guides have collated their own list of 40 film destinations.

I also came across a detailed report entitled, 'Quantifying film and television tourism in England', which discusses the value of feature film and television drama tourism. A joint publication by Creative England and VisitBritain, 'Film Tourism: What is it, and how can you maximise the benefits?' may also be useful.

Although many locations have benefited economically from the tourist trade, some locations have also suffered; Maya Beach in Thailand has had so many tourists since 'The Beach' was filmed there, that the authorities have decided on a temporary closure of the area to help the coral reefs recover. Beachfront hotels, boat anchors and plastic waste being dumped in the sea have been blamed for destroying 80% of the coral reefs in Thailand.

*Image courtesy of NewZealand.com