Cinematography: in the footsteps of your favorite heroes

Time does not stand still, and every year package tourism noticeably loses its position, some experts believe that very soon such tours will disappear into oblivion. Already now with great speed there are more and more new types of tourism, sometimes very specialized, but, nevertheless, found their niche. An example of such a young and promising industry is film tourism.

Film tourism is a relatively new direction in the tourism industry, which implies a journey in the footsteps of famous film heroes and filming locations. It is not possible to determine the exact date or at least the time interval for the emergence of such a specific direction, since the data of different specialists in this industry will vary greatly. But one thing can be said unequivocally that the beginning of everything was the opening of nostalgic cafes based on films. A pioneer among such establishments was Rick’s Cafe in Morocco, which opened 60 years after the release of the legendary melodrama Casablanca.

A surge in tourist activity in places associated with recently released paintings as a clear pattern attracted the attention of scientists 30 years ago. If not so long ago the phenomenon of film tourism was noted as a curious phenomenon, today it is obvious that the next leader of rental is a powerful tool to attract tourists to the places involved in the script.

For the first time enterprising figures of the travel industry drew attention to this fact in 2006, when immediately after the film adaptation of Dan Brown’s book The Da Vinci Code, the most visited museum in the world, the Louvre experienced a real boom in popularity and a record number of tourists. Later, the management of the museum decided to organize a 50-minute tour of the main characters of the film. Those wishing to try on the role of Professor Robert Langdon or coder Sophie Neve were given audio guide tubes and offered to follow the Louvre galleries along the same route as the heroes of the novel, and the accompanying text of the tour was voiced by Jean Reno himself!

Pictured: The fictional "Grand Budapest Hotel" from the film of the same name

A vivid example of the formation of a tourist object as if out of thin air was a small and basically ordinary town of Forks in Washington state. It was here that most of the first film of the Twilight saga was filmed. After the release on the big screen of the film, which, as we already know, was a stunning success among teenagers, tourists began to materialize from nowhere in the unremarkable Forks. Here, Twilight fans can feel the melancholy atmosphere of the city, visit the school where the Cullens studied, skip a glass of wine in the same restaurant where Edward and Bella spent their first date, and so on.

There is hardly a more epic and cinematic city than New York. Here is the New York Stock Exchange, featured in a dozen popular films about the sharks of business and investment, the Empire State Building with the staunchly associated King Congo. Godzilla walked the streets of New York City, Spider-Man fought crime, and the Avengers once again saved the world and much less Sex and the City. Based on this series, a bus tour has already been compiled, which lasts at least 3.5 hours. During this time, tourists have time to visit about 40 memorable places in the life of friends! At the disposal of tourists numerous cafes, where Kerry Bradshaw went on dates with her bosom girlfriends, you can also visit Kerry's apartment, walk through her favorite shoe stores and even sit in the bar on her chair.

Pictured: Kerry Bradshaw's apartment in New York

In no way inferior to the dynamic New York restrained London, with which the life of the immediate and curious Bridget Jones is connected, by the way, an official route has not been created in the wake of her life, which does not prevent her fans from independently following nostalgic trails. Bridget’s desire to deal with his own shortcomings found sympathy with millions of viewers. A powerful brand attracting flows of tourists were “Sherlock Holmes” on Baker Street, “Notting Hill”, “Pride and Prejudice” and, of course, the saga about the wizard Harry Potter, which has long become more than just a filmed book. A whole generation of children grew up on this story, whose worldview and concept of good and evil was formed by the relationships between the characters of the novel, and the authority of JK Rowling herself could compete with the parental one. Therefore, a tour based on “Harry Potter” “Ten Hours in an English Tale” seems less than you could think of. The main attractions in it were London's King Cros station, London Zoo, which featured in the first film and the famous school of witchcraft and magic Hogwarts, it is also Alnick Castle, the estate of the Earls of Northumberland, by the way, the second largest estate in England after Windsor. By the way, after the shooting of Harry Potter, the number of visitors increased by 120 percent!

Pictured: Hogwarts Grand Hall

France is certainly a paradise for fashionists, aesthetes, gourmets and moviegoers. In such a charming and cinematic country, wonderful and memorable pictures are shot, but the most popular places in Paris are associated with the life of the waitress Amelie. The places where Amelie lived and worked are marked by huge posters depicting Audrey Totu, so they are hard to miss. The film's popularity is not surprising, "Amelie" seems to be the epitome of everything French: light, ironic and playful. Immediately after the release of the picture began a real amelimania, her name was given to the streets, pastry shops and cats, and in the cafe where she worked on the plot, there were queues.

Pictured: The Two Mills Bar, where Amelie Poulin worked as a waitress

A trip to the memorable places of such a monster filmmaker as “Lord of the Rings” resulted in an independent form of tourism, which is called Tolkien tourism. New Zealand’s fantastic landscapes are immortalized forever by director Peter Jackson. All three parts of the film were shot in different regions of the country, and many of the scenery for the film was so good that they were not demolished and left for fun greedy tourists, well, or just lazy to dismantle. A huge number of official excursions to New Zealand Middle-earth are organized around the country, in addition, independent tourists can also build their own route and visit memorable places with the help of a free “map of Middle-earth”. By the way, in New Zealand was shot another film in the genre of fantasy “The Chronicles of Narnia”, won the hearts of viewers with its fabulous landscapes.

Pictured: New Zealand, Wellington (The Lord of the Rings)

But fans of the acclaimed series Game of Thrones will have to sweat a lot to make a trip to memorable places, because the shooting of all parts was already conducted in seven countries! According to the film crew, Spain, Iceland, Croatia, Northern Ireland, Malta, Scotland and Morocco were the most suitable for the Games.

Film tourism is clearly something more than visiting theme parks, pop routes and movie companies. It owes its origin to the audience, captivated by the atmosphere of this or that picture and went in search of a corner of the earth, on which an amazing story occurred. A really good movie is magic in its pure form, which attracts viewers and does not let go after many years.

Text by Diana Yusupova

Photo: travel.tochka.net, i24.com.ua, image.ie