The Experiences of Film Location Tourists

Within the last decade film-induced tourism has gained increasing attention from academics and the industry alike. While most research has focused on the tourism-inducing effects of film productions, not much has been written about the film location tourists themselves. This book examines the on-site experiences of these tourists by drawing from various disciplines, including geography, sociology and psychology. The author accompanied tourists to film locations from The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars and The Sound of Music and conducted extensive on-site research with them. The results show that only by understanding the needs and wants of film location tourists can film be utilised as a successful and sustainable instrument within strategic destination marketing portfolios.

Stefan Roesch has worked in the tourism industry for over ten years and is currently a project manager for a market research and tourism consulting institute. He is also a freelance consultant in film tourism, an area he has been researching for over 5 years. As part of his doctoral thesis, Stefan undertook fieldwork research on several case studies, including The Lord of the Rings in New Zealand, Star Wars in Tunisia and The Sound of Music in Austria. He regularly speaks at international conferences and advises the industry on how to utilise film for marketing strategies.