| What prompted you to write
this book?
I first got involved in the tourism industry through working on
adventure horseriding tours in the High Country of Victoria (Australia).
These were extended tours taking in much of the country that has
featured in European Australian's heritage and was the focus for
two movies, The Man From Snowy River (I and II). These movies
were really popular in Australia and north America, coming out
around the same time as Crocodile Dundee and Mad Max. These movies
from the 1980s have been acknowledged as playing a significant
role in increasing tourism to Australia from North America in
particular.
Also, The Man from Snowy River movies influenced the growth of
the adventure horseback area -- prior to the first movie there
were three businesses operating, while in the decade following
that number increased to over thirty. (In the early 1990s I wrote
a guidebook, Beeton's Guide to Adventure Horse Riding in Victoria,
and of the 25 businesses I toured with and wrote about, 16 were
based in the High Country, or "Man from Snowy River country"
as they liked to promote it.)
This involvement in the tours set me on the path of working in
tourism, and ultimately in becoming a teacher, researcher and
academic in this field. So, it was a logical thing for me to want
to study and better understand -- without these movies, I would
probably have ended up in the IT industry!
I had also spent from the late 1980s to now thinking about the
influence of film on us -- on our behaviour, our dreams, desires
and realities. On my first trip to the United
States, I was riding a horse in Monument Valley pretending
to be John Wayne. This struck me as quite bizarre -- here was
an Australian woman pretending to be an actor pretending to be
a cowboy in an environment that often pretended to be somewhere
else..... Little did I realise then, but this was my first encounter
with postmodern thought!
Can you explain how you came up with the term film-induced
tourism?
I came up with the term as I was interested in more than movies
-- that trip to the US also reinforced for me how much of my formative
years had been informed by television programs, particularly from
the United States and United Kingdom. I was only allowed to watch
a limited amount of television as a child, but my favourite programs
were Rin Tin Tin, I Dream of Genie, Zoro, The Lone Ranger and
any western (they had horses in them!).
So, I wanted to include TV series and other film formats into
my work, hence the term 'film-induced tourism' and not movie-induced
tourism. While I realise that many people use the term 'film'
to describe a 'movie', I have used it in a broader sense.
Do you have any favorite films that inspired tourism
that you were not able to include in the book?
I have tried to include everything that I have come across in
terms of film and tourism, particularly those that interested
me. However, every time I talk about the phenomenon people come
up with their own examples. Yet, as I explain in the book, it
is often questionable as to the level of influence many films
had -- did they really 'induce' tourism or just give people something
else to think about while at a place. For example, i would be
surprised if many people visited New York purely because it was
featured in a movie or TV series -- however, once there, visiting
film sites is one way to experience that city.
I have also neglected movies and TV series from other cultures,
particularly Asian and European cinema. Due to the pervasiveness
of Hollywood and western culture (and my own personal background)
I have focused primarily on film from the US, UK, Australia and
New Zealand.
I have recently returned from Cuba and Jamaica and am curious
as to how they are affected by film. Of course, from my western
perspective, the movie "Cool Running" made visiting
the Bobsled Bar in Montego Bay more interesting and 'Buena Vista
Social Club' informed my initial response to Cuba. But, both of
these movies were made by westerners, not part of a local indigenous
industry.
What is the future of study in this area?
I know that there are some graduate students looking into some
of these areas, but we need more! For example, I currently have
a Masters student looking at the Mel Gibson movie 'The Passion
of the Christ' in terms of tourism and spirituality, so he is
taking the work I have done down another path.
How does your work assist those in the tourism industry?
Many tourism professionals are looking towards film (and media
in general) as a powerful tool for marketing, imaging and branding
a destination, as well as seeing business opportunities. This
is particulalry the case in small, marginalised (usually rural)
communities. What I have tried to do is to look at the concept
of film and tourism as objectively as possible and provide such
groups with a more realistic picture of what a movie (or TV series)
can and can not do for them. This has not been easy as there is
the research is still very limited, and often results take some
time to become evident.
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