Tourism Movies

I've recently watched a few movies, many of them seem to be featuring picturesque China.

From the animated Kung Fu Panda to the Chinese war epic of the Red Cliff movie, China is given quite a good highlight, and in a way, 'playing a vital role' in the movie. Of course, these international movies were scripted with China in mind, and can't be replaced with a backdrop of any other country for that matter.

But then, the recent Hollywood blockbuster Batman, The Knight Rider which has background of modern day cities choose to have a feature of Hong Kong. Though it was just a small glimpse in the film, but featuring HK as a prominent international Chinese city here is something to be recognised about.

Of course, there are many more films using China as backdrops... and all this is good for the country, especially when the beautiful sceneries from the country (in this case, China) is used as backdrops.

But it's not only China that the film makers have made popular. Remember how Lord Of The Rings (LOTR) made quite an impact in the tourists flocking to the relatively quiet country of New Zealand? Well now, there is even LOTR tour guides there - touring the places that were shot in the country.

This goes to show that big blockbusters especially give a good impact on tourism to a particular country. The background view may seem unimportant to the viewers, but in fact, it makes the movie complete... like I mentioned, some just need these backgrounds because the films are meant to depict a certain country, while others enhancing a movie & complimenting its script.

And when we viewers watch these picturesque backgrounds, we may remember the movie, but we also remember the sceneries. And that could jolly well be one of our destinations in the future.

So, that is why many countries welcome film makers to make 'tourism movies'. Film makers, especially the ones with big outreach are spoilt for choice as many countries tourism bodies/ boards welcome them with open arms.

The help & assistance usually do not come in monetary terms though I've read about TV shows that are sponsored. The help come in like visas, production location shoot, accommodation & flight/ transport.

I guess the big film makers already know all these info. But for budding film makers, and even local film makers, we should use this information wisely for our future films and aim to go global with it.

Next up: Movies that have made our country on the world map.