Film-Induced Tourism: Benefits and Challenges for Destination Marketing

This paper aims at a qualitative-based empirical investigation of how TV series influences the economic structure and stimulate the publicity of places where it was filmed and which are about to be considered as a visitor attraction in domestic tourism. In order to reach this objective, we have chosen Bozuyuk, a small town of Mugla and located in the south-west part of Turkey. Within the scope of the field study, three excursions were arranged to the town of Bozuyuk where the series was shot, and an on-site observation was made by witnessing both interviews and shooting of the series. Despite the fact that the importance of shooting a series in the region was not understood by the local people in the beginning, all the participants, whom we made interviews with, empasized the contribution of the series in terms of the local economy and publicity. There are some tradesmen approaching the issue particularly in terms of cost-benefit analysis in the light of environment and sustainability. As in Bozuyuk, TV series and movies could aid to counterbalance the lack of causal advertisements for the promotion of places and become a centre of attraction, as a single product itself or as an integrated multiple product, catering for people who like to take short visits. Choosing such a method has an equal impact of spending million dollars for publicity. A further consequence of this study is that gaining a widespread coverage in domestic media and tourism depends on the power of film producers or directors.