ABSTRACT
Film tourism has been heralded as a positive outcome by destinations featuring in film and television; further emphasizing a film industry, while promoting awareness of a destination (Beeton, 2005; Croy & Walker, 2003; Cynthia & Beeton, 2009; Hudson, 2011; Karpovich, 2010; Rittichainuwat & Rattanaphinanchai, 2015; Tuclea & Nistoreanu, 2011). The result has been widely recognized as stimulating tourist demand to the featured destination (Busby & Klug, 2001; Hudson & Ritchie, 2006; O’Connor, Flanagan, & Gilbert, 2008; Riley, Baker, & Van Doren, 1998), even though great increases in tourist numbers may generally be an exceptional expectation (Croy, 2011). Due to the perceived success of inducing tourists, authors have claimed films as marketing and promotional tools, enhancing a destination image with minimal cost involvement from the tourism industry (Bolan & Williams, 2008; Croy, 2010; Croy & Walker, 2003; Hudson, 2011; Hudson & Ritchie, 2006; Tooke & Baker, 1996). In this chapter, ‘film’ refers to popular culture mediums including movies and television, whereby people may be exposed to incidental destination images. Furthermore, film tourism applies “to visitation to sites where movies and TV programs have been filmed [and set], as well as to tours to production studios, including film-related theme parks” (Beeton, 2005, p. 11).
