By Katie Parker, Brand & Content Director, City Nation Place

Welcome to Forks, Washington, a city of 3800 people. In 2004, Forks received 5000 visitors. But by 2010, there were more than 72,000 visitors flooding into this tiny town.

The change? Twilight had been released two years prior.

What’s truly staggering, however, is that Twilight was actually filmed in Portland, Oregon, some 250 miles south of Forks itself. Just the fact that Stephanie Meyer’s novel was based there was enough to prompt the tourism tsunami.

Cities and countries are increasingly waking up to the economic potential of film. The days of Hollywood’s dominance over the production lot are long behind us, and place teams are developing new strategies to encourage producers to film in their locations.

What do the numbers say?

When Netflix’s I Will Find You shot at Kingston Penitentiary in 2025, the production team used a total of 1,325 hotel nights. According to Tourism Kingston, the production generated over $2 million in economic impact over just four weeks.

On the other side of the Atlantic, We Are Staffordshire have just wrapped up the first year of Screen Staffordshire, a dedicated service working to attract film and TV crews to the region. In just one year of activity, Screen Staffordshire has already enabled over £1.3 million pounds in spending, a 10.6x economic multiplier on the initial investment from Staffordshire County Council.

That economic impact isn’t locked within the filming industry either. Yes, local film crews and accommodation providers see a boost, but the impact is also felt across a range of ancillary services. Joanne Loton, Film Commissioner at Tourism Kingston, and Jonny Shelton, Film Office Manager at Screen Staffordshire, both highlighted that providers ranging from printers to logistics to smoke alarm monitoring all saw lifts because of film crews working in their area.

The immediate economic influx of film is undeniable – but what happens when shooting has wrapped?

Whether you call it screen tourism or set jetting, the link between film and intent to visit a specific destination is becoming increasingly clear. Visit Britain’s August 2024 screen tourism research shows that 9 out of 10 potential visitors were keen to visit film and TV locations on their holiday. More than that, 1 in 6 people who have previously visited the UK responded that they had been influenced by a film or TV location to travel outside of London, spreading the benefits of tourism more broadly within the country.

This stance is backed up by the research from other tourism marketing organisations. Belinda Eldridge, Head of Service for Inward Investment, International Relations & Visitor Economy for Leeds Council, told us that following the 2026 release of Wuthering Heights, “the Brontë Parsonage museum reported that visitor numbers have increased by 170%” as travellers were inspired to learn more about Emily Brontë’s life and works. And New Zealand Tourism have found that film tourism queries account for 2% of Google search referrals to their site – outperforming other categories like Food & Wine and Accommodation.

Blending film and tourism promotion: Starring GREAT Britain

VisitBritain responded to the growing trend for set jetting with a campaign that seamlessly blended the many iconic films and shows shot in Britain into one master-reel. From Paddington to Harry Potter, and from Bridgerton to Jurassic World, ‘Starring GREAT Britain’ invites visitors to experience the magic of their favourite films or shows in real life. 

“The campaign concept ‘Starring GREAT Britain’ brings Britain to the foreground, highlighting Britian as the “real start of the show”, taking audiences on a journey beyond the silver screen to put Britain’s nations and regions and the incredible tourism experiences they offer centre stage” explained Robin Johnson, Global Marketing Director for VisitBritain. “Results show that in the first six months of the campaign, for every £1 we invested, we generated £20 in additional visitor spending.”

New Zealand: 100% Pure Middle-Earth

On the other side of the world, New Zealand is continuing to feel the legacy of the Lord of the Rings and Hobbits franchise. The Lord of the Rings films captured the beauty of New Zealand so seamlessly that, to all extent and purpose, New Zealand is inseparable from Middle-Earth itself – leading to a 2012 campaign that transformed Tourism New Zealand’s ‘100% Pure New Zealand’ campaign into ‘100% Pure Middle-Earth.’

The momentum shows no sign of dying down either. In 2025, 600,000 visitors travelled to Hobbiton, the set where the Shire was recorded for both franchises, providing that interest in the films is alive and well. Angela Blair, General Manager International for Tourism New Zealand, told us that 25 years later after the release of The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring, 15% of New Zealand tourists still credit the franchise as having influenced their decision to travel there (MBIE’s International Visitor Survey, YE March 2026).

“It’s not just inspiration for a trip to New Zealand; it translates into actual behaviour on the ground,” Angela continued. “[Lord of the Rings fans are] significantly more likely to visit four or more regions, which spreads the benefits of tourism more widely around New Zealand. They’re also stronger advocates for New Zealand as a destination too, with a Net Promoter Score of 81.4 vs 74.3 (YE March 2026).”

The holy grail in screen tourism?

However, not all films or TV shows are born equal in destination marketing. Paula Port, CMO at Destination Toronto, summarised an important distinction: “From a destination brand perspective, there is an important difference between Toronto doubling for another city and Toronto playing itself. Both can create curiosity, especially when people discover that a location they recognise is actually here. But the brand value is stronger when Toronto is visible and named, because audiences are getting a more specific sense of the city itself.”

Films have a long history of dressing up a destination to look like another, more expensive location. Just recently, Glasgow was transformed into New York City for the upcoming Spider-Man blockbuster, joining the many legions of other cities which have been presented as the iconic city to film audiences over the years. Görlitz, the European Film Location of the Decade, explicitly references its unique ability to be flexibly adapted into whichever location, genre, or era that your piece is set in as one of its strengths.

From an economic perspective, this chameleon-esque trait is undoubtedly a huge boon. But the magic really happens when a film or TV show tells a story that is deeply rooted in who you are as a place – or at the very least, you aren’t pretending to be somewhere else.

Connecting intrigue to reputation and brand building

Big-budget fantasies aside, though, there is a real power in shows that create curiosity about your place. “For us, Wuthering Heights wasn’t simply about promoting a film,” explained Leeds Council’s Belinda Eldridge. “It was an opportunity to tell the wider story of West Yorkshire’s literary heritage, landscapes, culture, and visitor offer.”

Staffordshire has seen similar success with The Great Pottery Throwdown, a British televised competition between amateur potters. Stoke-on-Trent, the county’s major city, has a long ceramics heritage, and now celebrates Staffordshire Day on May 1^st, because it marks the anniversary of the founding of Wedgewood’s famous pottery company.

“I’m in the very early stages of working with Stoke-on-Trent City Council to compile a 10-year impact report as to how that production has impacted the city,” shared Jonny Shelton at Screen Staffordshire. “There’s a lot of anecdotal and quite informal evidence that its impact is hugely significant.” As just one example, Jonny told us about a conversation held at Gladstone Pottery Museum where the show is recorded, and the visitors revealed they had travelled from Switzerland specifically because they were potters who loved the show.

Destination Toronto’s Paula Port also shared a similar story with us about how they had been intentional in pursuing Bravo’s Top Chef: Destination Canada: “The format allowed Toronto to be part of the story through its chefs, restaurants, neighbourhoods, and culinary diversity. It created a very direct connection between what audiences saw on screen and what they could experience here.”

Ottawa Tourism and Heated Rivalry: Engaging authentically with a moment

This is not to say that this is the only correct approach. Screen Staffordshire’s Jonny Shelton was quick to tell us that “if we were only to welcome place-based stories, then we might as well shut the doors now, frankly.”

He’s correct, of course. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t represent an incredible win when you can align the ambitions of a film with the broader reputational ambitions of your place.

You don’t even need to have been the primary set location to seize opportunities to strengthen your relationship with key audiences. The majority of Heated Rivalry, the ice hockey romance TV series that took the world by storm, was filmed in Hamilton. However, Ottawa Tourism made headlines for the playful way that they leant into their role as fictional hometown of one of the leads, including changing their Instagram bio to proclaim the city as the ‘Birthplace of Shane Hollander’.

“Rather than taking a traditional tourism marketing approach, we engaged with fans as fans,” explained Megan Peckford, Director of Marketing at Ottawa Tourism. “As a result, people weren’t simply engaging with content about Ottawa. They were actively engaging with Ottawa Tourism itself. We saw fans praising our social media presence, sharing our content, creating posts specifically to get our attention, and even describing themselves as fans of the destination organisation.”

The approach paid off. In just a few days, Ottawa Tourism gained more than 8000 followers on threads, representing +36% growth for the channel. The team built a relationship with an audience who likely wouldn’t have engaged with them through traditional tourism marketing campaigns, moving their approach beyond mere awareness and into genuine community building.

“At its best, screen tourism is not about making the destination the star of the story,” Megan continued. “It’s about helping people deepen their connection with a place they first discovered through a story they love.”

Tourism Kingston: Converting on-screen success into long-term brand strategy

Tourism Kingston’s Film Commissioner, Joanne Loton, told us that Kingston is building “a solid reputation as a production-friendly town that gets big city results with small town charm,” citing a number of big studio series that have filmed in the city recently.

However, their success is more than just the ease of filming there; it’s also due to the strength of their creative and cultural brand identity. Over the years, Kingston’s Film Office has launched several skills advancement programmes to help grow local talent, develop local intellectual property, and kickstart production companies that will produce local stories. The city’s economic strengths and brand DNA come together seamlessly.

“Shaftesbury is one of our favourite production companies to work with,” Joanne explained. “Not only do they come out to Kingston consistently to film parts of Murdoch Mysteries, they also bring out tourist groups who come on extended vacations to tour locations that were filmed here for the series.”

Beyond this, Shaftesbury host ‘in concert’ live showings in partnership with a local symphony orchestra. They also work alongside Tourism Kingston to nurture the future of filming talent within the city, including sponsoring both the Kingston Canadian Film Festival and mentoring programmes that upskill local creatives – with the hopes that they will develop their own series to be filmed in Kingston.

“This is one major example of an ideal partnership that lines up with our strategic initiatives that help to drive long-term economic and reputational growth,” Joanne continued. “Destinations should look for key [partners] that have similar goals for local talent incubation, alongside growth and expansion for place building / branding, and find ways to collaborate where it becomes a win-win-win for everyone involved.”

Three essential elements to connect film to your place ambitions

As with most challenges facing place brand and marketing teams, there is no one solution: every place will have different priorities and different resources available to them. But there are a few common lessons across everything we heard.

1. Be prepared.

The entertainment industry moves fast, and you need to be ready to act when it does. Belinda Eldridge, Leeds Council, stressed that “strong relationships between destination organisations, attractions, accommodation providers, cultural institutions, local authorities, and screen sector partners allow destinations to respond quickly when opportunities arise.”

The reality is that when opportunity comes knocking, you don’t always have time to start reaching out to new partners. Take the time to invest in strong relationships with key stakeholders so you’re ready when it does and make sure you have the decision-making processes in place to allow your team to act quickly when required.

2. Build partnerships based on shared interests.

Partnerships work best when there is a common goal at play. Map out your stakeholders and identify which partners have the influence to move people and which are working towards similar outcomes. The more targeted you can be with your partnerships, the more impactful they’ll become – just look at Tourism Kingston’s partnership with the production company, Shaftesbury.

3. It has to be authentic.

Place marketing and branding doesn’t belong in every conversation, nor should it. Ottawa Tourism’s Megan Peckford said that “audiences can tell the difference between a destination that is genuinely participating in a cultural moment, and one that is simply trying to capitalise on it. The goal should never be to force a tourism message into the conversation.”

If you want to reach broader audiences and foster genuine community building, it’s as important to know when not to engage as when you should.

Equally, as Leeds Council’s Belinda Eldridge said, “visitors are increasingly looking for genuine connections to the places they see on screen[.] Destinations should focus on the stories, people, and experiences that already exist, rather than trying to create something artificial around a production.”