Creative England have released new research into the heritage tourism potential of sites featured within films, while the Scottish Government is urging ‘Outlander’ fans to go and see Inverness castle which formed the backdrop to the film.
Creative England writes:
Filming in the UK has reached record levels. 2014 saw a massive increase in film production in the UK, a 35% increase on 2013 and the highest recorded figure ever.
As a result, screen tourism is a growing phenomenon, with more and more locations across the country benefiting from a booming screen industry. The report ‘Quantifying Film and Television Tourism in England’ produced by OlsbergSPI for us in association with VisitEngland looks at the impact of screen tourism across England outside of London and shows that our filming locations are attracting domestic and overseas visitors in abundance.
The research surveyed visitors at eight locations across the country: Alnwick Castle (famously home to Harry Potter’s Hogwarts), the village of Bampton (Downton Abbey), West Bay (Broadchurch), Castle Howard (Brideshead Revisited, Death Comes to Pemberley), Holkham (Shakespeare in Love, The Duchess), Lyme Park (Pride and Prejudice, The Awakening) Puzzlewood (Merlin, Doctor Who) and Wollaton Hall (The Dark Knight Rises).
- Screen tourists brought between £100 million-£140 million to the economy in 2014.
- The most popular locations can attract up to £1.6 million every year from international tourists
- Alnwick Castle (famously the home of Hogwarts for the first two Harry Potter films) generated £4.3 million in screen tourism spend in 2014.
- Other sites attracting significant levels of screen tourism included Bampton, with £2.7 million estimated, and West Bay (Broadchurch).
The report also proves that screen tourism is relevant for all types of content, from period drama to dark, contemporary stories, family fare to fantasy and sci-fi. And dark stories are not necessarily a barrier to the screen tourism trend. Broadchurch may have hinged on the murder of a child but 30.8% of international respondents were core screen tourists, along with 6.9% of domestic respondents. This suggests that compelling, high-quality screen experiences can induce tourism regardless of the plot or tone. It also proves that screen exposure can help drive tourists to the English regions. Currently, London claims a higher share of all international tourist spend than the rest of England – with a 53% share of international tourism spend, against England’s 35% (2013 study by Deloitte/Oxford Economics). With more and more film and high-end TV dramas choosing to film outside of London (Far from the Madding Crowd, Dad’s Army, Wolf Hall and Poldark are all recent examples) screen tourism can only help increase this figure.
View the Creative England press release
