Film tourism: Integrated strategic tourism and regional economic development planning

Economic and social changes have had dramatic effects on regional areas. In a search for diversification, tourism and film may be targeted by these regions. Challenges of regional planning, however, include lack of local expertise, decentralized decision making, and diverse stakeholder groups. Specifically for film tourism this includes anticipating visitation numbers and assessing potential negative impacts. Broken Hill, located in Outback Australia, was used to investigate the complementary integration of film into regional development and tourism strategies. A stakeholder engagement process that adopted a transactive approach was implemented. The main findings of this process highlighted the need to develop the strong film presence into a visitor-friendly product, coordinating the film product with other destination strengths, establishing an expert and sector-diverse governance team, and developing a consistent brand with film as a component. Implications for other regional areas include considering how a film presence can be harnessed to develop film tourism experience opportunities, utilizing film tourism and production expertise to develop a coordinated and sustainable product, and to promote film experiences reflective of their place in the destination hierarchy. Finally, for film tourism, is the need to utilize representations of the range of destination experiences in film in destination marketing.