Film-Induced Tourism
Tourism industry has been growing at a good pace and it has reached to its maturity. Many developing countries have been promoting their destinations to attract tourists. They have been using market positioning and promotional programs for influencing the behavior of the buyers (Hansen, 2017). Film induced tourism has been gaining popularity due to growth of entertainment activities and international tourism. It creates interest in the visitors who wants to experience the destinations which have been included in movies and televisions. It has been very beneficial for the tourism and travel organizations because it gives long term prosperity to the region (Sørensen, 2016). The objective of this essay is to understand the relationship between the film locations and customer decision making. Along with this, it contains buyer decision making process and potential benefits to the tourism industry.
As per Mittal, 2017, “Film tourism attracts people by showing them beautiful sceneries and locations in the movies” (Mittal, 2017). They have stories which are linked to the destination and it creates a favorable image in the mind of the consumers. Beeton, 2016 believes that “ The image of the destinations greatly influencing the decision of the visitors”. Film makers and directors play an important role in creating the image of a place through their representation. They show the attributes of a place which inspires people and changes their preferences. This effect can be voluntary, conscious or unconscious. Irimiás, 2017 agrees that “Visual representations penetrate more as compared to written form of communication.” It is a planned placement and marketing which has been done to create awareness, interest and desires. Film tourism can provide essential details about a destination to the people. It can enhance their knowledge about the culture, natural landscapes, adventures activities and locals (Sela, Goldenberg Ben-Gal & Shmueli, 2017). Leisure activities, adventures and movies are methods which are used by the people to escape from the real world. Movies can influence audience with the physical properties of a location such as landscapes, nature and sceneries. Similarly, the themes of a movie including actors, story line, events etc have direct impact on the feelings, behavior, attitude and emotions of the people. According to Curtis, 2017, “Actors, storylines and events have great impact on the memory when it is closely associated with the destination.” It can have long lasting impact and it increases the desires of a person to experience the same.
It also affects the sentiments and obsessions of the visitors which gives new meaning to the tourism destination. The interest in a particular destination could be due to emotional attachments, memories, certain images, cultural interests or desire to explore new places.(Li, Song, Lundberg & Shen, 2016) Many Australian movies have shown one of the best locations which can influence the mind of a person. They have become a pull factor to attract different people to that place. It includes Babe (1995), Adventures of Priscilla (1994), Dead Calm (1991) etc. These movies have included Great Barrier Reefs, Whitsundays, Hamilton Island and Kimberley. Apart from this, the American series ‘Sex and the City’ has been major hit worldwide (Stromberg, 2016). The destinations and locations shown in the series have become more popular for people who are visiting New York. Some movies have more impact on the decision making of the consumers as compared to others. It is dependent on the storyline, emotional experience and association of the audiences with the movie. Similarly, the repetition of exposures in different movies can increase the familiarity of the people. They are push factors which induce people to visit a particular destination (Meneguel, Santos & Lima, 2017). Along with this, the beauty and attractiveness of the settings also impact the choice of the visitors.
Marketing Concepts
Marketing concept is used by companies to understand and make decision to increase the satisfaction level of the consumers. Hamzah, Aminudin & Ismail, 2016 states that “Consumers should be placed in the center and their perspective should be used for making strategies”. Customers are strength of the organization and their opinions should be valued. The products and services are changed to make sure that they provide high level of satisfaction to the consumers. It increases the loyalty which helps the company to grow. It brings repeat business to the firm which is essential for long term survival of the company. According to Li, Song, Lundberg & Shen, 2016 “All the employees should be devoted in increasing the loyalty of the consumers”. Huge funds are spent to make sure that they understand the expectations of the end users. There are three important factor which are considered by marketers. Firstly, it consists of target market which is created after extensive research and evaluation. They customized the products as per the requirements of the particular sector. The marketing campaigns and promotional programs are designed according to it (Sørensen, 2016). Secondly, the demand of the consumers is seen in the market. Organizations have to make sure that they decide their marketing strategies as per it. Consumer preference studies are done to take care of this issue. Finally, value proposition is considered to enhance the experience of the customer. High quality products are provided at reasonable price. It adds values to the goods purchased by the people (Bakiewicz, Leask & Raki?, 2016).
Consumer decision making can be understood only when the marketers evaluates the factors which motivates and affects the consumers. As per Bakiewicz, Leask & Raki?, 2016 “Tourism is for leisure in which a person stays for shorter time period”. Motivation is a drive which influences the behavior of a person. Maslow’s theory can be applied in the development of marketing strategy. There are various factors which affect the decision of the customers. It can have effect on spending, stay time period, destinations, attractions and location of the stay (Irimiás, 2017). Marketers are using different models and theory gets well equipped and forecast changes in the behavior. They even induce change through their promotional and marketing activities. Maslow’s theory has been general and it will be beneficial for the marketers to apply Tourism Behavioral model. It has identified two motivations: specific and general. General motivation is when people travel for different reasons. But specific reasons include interest, knowledge, influence from others, advertisements and the most important aspect film induced tourism. According to Millán, García & Díaz, 2016 “There are many forces outside which influence the decision of the traveler.” There are certain stages which have been identified by researchers. It consists of pre decision stage, after purchase evaluation and future decisions. All these stage forms a continuous loop and it involves motivation, learning behavior and cognition. Apart from this, tourist has fewer expectations from the products (Sela, Goldenberg Ben-Gal & Shmueli, 2017). They need leisure time and satisfaction. In this case, film induced tourism is effective. Marketers use intangible aspects of the business and create value from it. It allows them to design strategies which can affect the decisions. Self actualization need people forces them to take a break from work life and it is sued by companies to promote tourism.
Consumer Decision Making
Movies and films are more effective in terms of promotion and attraction of tourists. This objective cannot be accomplished by any promotional strategy which tourist organization implies in their business. According to Mittal, 2017, “Films have direct impact on the image of the decision which impacts the travel decisions.” Film induced tourism makes an important contribution in travel and tourism market. It allows them to reach a wider audience as well as the target market in less investment. According to a research of Sciandra & Inman, 2016, it was found that many organizations fail to keep in pace with the growing demand of the market. They do not have enough resources to use innovative methods of promotion and marketing campaigns. This promotional strategy has been successful in many countries such has US, UK, New Zealand etc. They have been able to attract large number of people. Different strategies are used by marketers including product development and positioning. They have collaborations with the film industry and they provide them with details about different places to visit (Beeton, 2016). The Australian Tourism Commission (ATC) has collaborated with Disney which is an attempt to promote Australia with the help of animated movie. Similarly, Visit Britain campaign has focused their attention in attracting Indian film makers to Britain (Hamzah, Aminudin & Ismail, 2016). It will help them to attract more visitors from India and other Asian countries.
Conclusion
The literature review has shown that film location and destination image has huge impact on the decision making of the consumers. It creates a desire which increases the need to visit the particular destination. Film based tourism has more benefits for the travel organization as compared to traditional methods of marketing. Furthermore, they have long lasting effect which cannot be accomplished by promotional and marketing strategies of the companies. The physical locations and themes of a film including actors, storyline, events etc have great impact on the feelings, behavior, attitude and emotions of the people. They not only create awareness about a particular destination but they also affect their decision making. But the image and popularity of destination is dependent on the success of the movie.
There are pull and push strategies which have been adopted by tourism industry through film induced tourism. It has brought positive results for them because it has been effective in attracting people from different regions. Countries like UK, US have been using it to develop their tourism sector. Films show attributes of a place which inspires people to visit it. It can be a conscious or unconscious decision for a person to visit the destination. But market positioning and promotional programs have been developed for influencing the behavior of the buyers. The growth of tourism industry and high level of competition has led to the development of film induced tourism. Along with this, it has given potential benefits to the travel and tourism companies. They have been able to expand their business due to increased number of tourists. Furthermore, they are not required to spent large amount of funds form portion of their business or destination.
So, it can be seen from the literature that there is strong relation between the film location and consumer decision making. It can change the preferences of the people who are more likely to visit the place. It creates interest in the visitors who wants to experience the destinations which have been shows in movies and televisions.
References
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