ABSTRACT
Popular culture’s influence by way of increasing tourism visitations has long been debated (Beeton, 2005, 2010), with film-induced tourism placed at the forefront. Film-induced tourism is a unique form of tourism motivating visitors to experience on- and off-location sites featured in popular movies and TV series (Beeton, 2005; Hudson & Ritchie, 2006). In recent years, film-induced tourism has developed into a growing worldwide phenomenon and its benefits have increasingly been perceived because it “offers something for everyone” (Hudson & Ritchie, 2006, p. 387). Film-induced tourism not only provides the tourist with a chance to experience unique sites featured in their favorite movies and/or TV series, but as a result these sites very often gain the status of an icon (Riley, Baker, & Van Doren, 1998), depending on their special qualities, characteristics, and their role in films, which can be further exploited in destination marketing strategies (Hahm & Wang, 2011; Hudson & Ritchie, 2006; O’Connor, Flanagan, & Gilbert, 2008). Larson, Lundberg, and Lexhagen (2013) showed that tourists’ consumption of popular culture sites may be beneficial if destination management organizations (hereinafter DMOs) wish to capitalize on it in their tourism developmental strategies. However, these strategies are not only reserved for the real world where experiences of tourists’ engagement with the attraction are created, but are nowadays transferred to the online world where the world-of-mouth (Hays, Page, & Buhalis, 2013; Qualman, 2009) is experienced with the help of social media.
