Film Induced Tourism: A Study in Indian Outbound Tourism

Abstract

It is widely believed that nothing unites India more than Cricket and Bollywood. Indian spending on foreign travel has increased to four fold as compared to that in the year 2000. While entire Europe and USA are still struggling to come out of recession, as per an estimate, Indian travellers are expected to grow to 50 million from 9 million. These statistics have enticed tourism boards across the world to find  multiple  avenues  to  have  maximum  share  of  this ever growing pie. Indian middle class is riding high on its growing  affluence, and  is  exploring  new  locales  and destinations to satisfy its craving for the distinct holiday experience.  Indian outbound market is sending strong growth  signals  to  the  Tourism  Boards  and  National Tourism  Boards  (NTBs) globally,  who  have  been experimenting for novel ways to tap this market within their  restricted resources.  Recent  studies  by  global researchers  have  established  the  positive  influence  of films,  on  people‟s  travel  decisions,  especially  to  the respective  locations and  destinations  featured  on  the silver screen. With its glossy and larger than life portrayal in the films, some of these destinations have successfully captured  the  imagination  of  movie  goers  and  enticed them to visit the places where films are believed to be shot. Unlike  the  promotional  films  made  for  tourism boards, films are considered more authentic as  coming from  a  third  party,  hence  portrayed  with  a  neutral approach. Through this paper, we have tried addressing the concerns in quantifying the impact of  film-induced tourism. We have also covered the factors responsible for hindrance  or  limiting  the  impact  on  destination promotion, which was shown in the particular film.