Resumen de Films and audiovisual potentiality in tourism destination promotion: a european perspective
Francesco Di Cesare, Anthony A. La Salandra, Elena Craparotta
The audiovisual medium represents a tool that is able to influence the perception and the decision-making process of a large potential tourist demand. This can be commonly observed but is also confirmed, year by year, by a wide variety of empirical research studies worldwide. In some of them it emerged that the mere portrayal of a destination in an audiovisual production is not enough to reap the benefits of film-induced tourism. Tourism destinations need to work proactively to orient this phenomenon and to promote their territory and resources, among a whole and articulated destination strategy. In recent years, several tourism organizations worldwide recognized the opportunities associated with film tourism, but the lack of a clear strategy allowing the destination to benefit from such opportunities has often resulted in missing good chances. It is still unclear how much tourism development managers believe in the potential of audiovisual productions as a tool to be included in their destination management and marketing strategy. Furthermore, it is not clear whether such destination managers consider audiovisual and film productions among their tourism promotion tools at all. This article's aim is to shed light on this situation. In order to understand what is, or is not, happening, a significant and heterogeneous panel of 30 European tourism destinations has been surveyed with a quantitative research approach through a questionnaire-based web survey. It emerged that, as indicated by 100% of the respondents, European destination managers are aware of the relationship between film and tourism and mostly keen to work on it. But it is also possible to notice-among the results-that it seems movie-induced tourism is used just through sporadic attempts and therefore not approached in a strategic way. The survey explores both existing attitudes towards the phenomenon, and the commitment to develop it, using film in tourism communication strategies. The results of this article provide a new foundation for further research, as well as operative suggestions for worldwide tourism professionals committed to tourism development.
