by Flying out to see where your favorite movie was filmed has long been a small but important tourist niche.
But while feature films such as Wonka and Napoleon boosting visitor numbers in Bath and Blenheim, the growth in TV streaming is fueling an increase in screen tourism which is expected to turn the pastime into big business next year.
The Crown, All Creatures Great and Small, Ted Lasso and Slow Horses Fans were all visiting the star locations, and it is expected where Warner Bros will choose to shoot a new TV adaptation of the Harry Potter novels.
And Masters of the Airfollow up on Band of Brothers by Steven Spielberg’s production company, is likely to have people flocking to east Anglia and other parts of the home counties when it airs in January.
Visit Britain is teaming up with the British Film Commission to launch Starring Great Britain in the new year, working with studios and production companies to promote films, TV series and their locations.
Adrian Wootton, chief executive of the British Film Commission, said: “Apart from attracting people to seek out a ‘British chocolate box’ experience, it’s the wider range of genres that attracts people to visit our locations.”
even though House of the Dragon, Foreigner and Bond films are strong draws, the shows “that don’t necessarily show locations in a ‘positive’ way – take Wide church, Peaky Blinders, Slow Horses – driving people to visit the place where they were shot,” he said.
About half of the general international visitors stay in London during the trip, with most of the rest following a tourist trail to Cambridge, then Oxford, Stratford-upon-Avon, York and Edinburgh. Screen tourism can help convince visitors that there is more to Britain than London, Oxbridge and Shakespeare.
VisitBritain said 34% of international visitors say they want to visit locations from their favorite film and TV shows. Patricia Yates, chief executive of VisitBritain, said: “By shining a spotlight on film and TV inspired experiences that you can only have in Britain, we are encouraging visitors to come and find out more about our amazing destinations, putting themselves in the picture . “
Seren Welch, a screen tourism consultant working with UKinbound, the UK tourism trade association, said the UK had benefited from the high production numbers.
“Places like the Royal Naval College in London – it currently houses over 150 feature films. The slow burn of a TV series is very effective, however. Call the Midwife it now has a permanent tour of Chatham’s historic shipyards.
“Often, the streamers also want to tell the story behind the scenes, especially Netflix. Bookings skyrocketed within 48 hours after Emily in Paris being released. People are watching and scrolling and booking.”
Shout-hunting has an extremely long pedigree. Thomas Coryate, the 17th century English writer who traveled to India, asked Mughal Emperor Jahangir for safe passage to Samarkand to visit Timur’s tomb. Christopher Marlowe’s play certainly inspired Coryate’s request Great Tamburlainewho dominated the emerging theater scene in London in Elizabeth.
Nowadays, screen tourism is quite fast. “We had a girl recently – she came from China, specifically to see Grassington,” said Linda Furniss, owner of Stripey Badger bookshop in the north Yorkshire village. “She was alone too – she flew in, stayed one night and flew back. That is how popular it was All Creatures Great and Small.”
Grassington has “always been a magnet for visitors”, said Furniss, who is one of the local business owners working with Channel 5 and the show’s producers. They changed the shop fronts of the village to the style of the 1930s period to create an authentic setting for the veterinary drama. But it was when the show began airing in the United States that things took off.
“The impact of visitors is amazing,” Furniss said. “I have a map of America in my bookstore now so we can talk about where people are from. The village is used to it, now that we know how filming works. All the crew are so friendly – it’s a very relaxing but enjoyable experience.”
The impact can be lasting. Local Hero was critically acclaimed upon its release in 1983, but the film was a minor hit at the box office. However, 40 years later there is still a stream of visitors to Pennan, a seaside village near Aberdeen, to see the phone box where the main character used to call his bosses in Houston.
Bill Pitt and his wife, Lynn, from Charleston, South Carolina, were among those visitors in 2005. “We stayed in Crovie [four miles away] but really we were coming to see the phone box,” said Pitt. He joked with her during the holiday that they should retire to the north east of Scotland. Now the Pitts live in Pennan, and run a self-catering cottage business, and Bill is responsible, along with his friend Eddie Hayes, for painting the phone box to protect it from sea spray.
“I approached BT and said, ‘We’ve got a dynamite phone box here, people come here to see it – do you mind if I paint it?’
“They said, ‘Sure – we’ll even send you the paint’.
“It’s such a special place. And when the weather is nice, people stop and look, and their picture is taken. All about the movie.”
