Set-Jetting TLDR;

Shows like ‘White Lotus’ & ‘Emily in Paris’ are inspiring travelers to go to the destinations they are filmed in. We’ve seen this impact with Hollywood, Bollywood and Korean TV shows and Movies. Tourism boards have seen this trend and have support and financed movies to film in their destination. It’s even impacted Reality TV shows with them shooting abroad specials.

Entities are offering incentives to media productions companies to shoot in their destination, Abu Dhabi was competitive at 30% cash rebate, however Saudi is now on the scene with a 40% cash rebate on production + a big financing program. Abu Dhabi should look to leverage the films produced here for Tourism products, as well as potentially create new original content which can attract tourists to the destination. To compete with Saudi as the main regional production hotspot, it may need to relook at it’s financial incentives and the maximum rebates provided.

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HBO & Netflix: The New TripAdvisor?

The White Lotus effect is among us (well not really for me – just couldn’t get into it). Following the end of second season of the Emmy-winning hit HBO show set in scenic Taormina, Sicily, web searches for travel to Italy increased by 50 percent, with the San Domenico Palace where the show was filmed was fully booked until spring 2023. The setting of season one, Four Season in Maui Hawaii, saw web traffic increase 425 percent year-over-year.

But it’s not just White Lotus having this impact, it’s part of a recent growing trend Expedia has coined ‘set-jetting’, where travelers are looking at inspiration from TV shows and movies to determine their next big getaway. Netflix’s ‘Emily in Paris’ has also inspired tourists to indulge in the city of love, with a reported 161 percent increase search for ‘Paris holidays’ in the UK since the series aired (let’s hope they didn’t experience Paris syndrome). According to American Express Travel, 64 percent of travelers have been inspired to travel to a destination after seeing it featured on a TV show, news source, or movie, increasing to 70 percent for Gen Z and millennials.

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Screen-Induced Tourism: Nothing New Under The Sun

Movies and TV shows influencing travel is not a new phenomenon, ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ starring my forever crush Julia Roberts sparked a generation of American travelers to ‘find themselves’, exploring the globe and causing a tourism boom in Bali. Whilst the movie cannot take all the credit – the book by Elizabeth Gilbert did sell 10 million copies and was a New York Times best seller for 187 weeks after all – the film has inspired those seeking to embrace ‘Dolce far niente’, tours dedicated to the experience self-discovery and descending on the iconic Ubud locations. I will say though, as a born and bred Londoner I take issue with London’s one word being stuffy!

This trend is not just reserved for solo female travelers escaping the realities of the big city, oh no, the sci-fi and fantasy fans among us have also taken to exploring the locations use for the movies and shows they love dearly. Lord of the Rings and Hobbit fans have birthed the phrase ‘Tolkien Tourism’, with Tourism New Zealand estimating this has brought in $620million and 6 percent of New Zealand visitors listed Lord of the Rings as a major reason for visiting.

The Harry Potter franchise been magical for the UK, with London School of Economics (LSE) professor Amitav Chakravarti estimating that the-boy-who-lived is worth £4bn to London’s economy. The critically acclaimed show Game of Thrones transformed not just our TV screens (I’ll ignore season 8 if you will), but also Croatian tourism, bringing the country €180.7mn between 2013 and 2018.

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Beyond Hollywood: International Film shaping travel

But the ability to inspire wanderlust is not restricted to just Hollywood. Yash Chopra, the legendary Indian director and his Hindi films are renown for making Indians fall in love with the snow-capped mountains, deep valleys, and idyllic lakes of the Jungfrau region of Switzerland. Chopra’s films have been credited as one of the key factors in increasing outbound travel from India to Switzerland. The impact of his films was so great that the Swiss Government awarded him the ‘Ambassador of Interlaken’ and have installed a statue of him in tribute. Bollywood which produces more than 1200 films every year has also had an impact in making Dubai a more attractive destination to Indian tourists, with films such as ‘Happy New Year’ starring the ‘Baadshah of Bollywood’ Shah Rukh Khan, which even inspired its own package at the Atlantis The Palm. The Rakesh Roshan film Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai made New Zealand so popular with Indian tourists, the existing 2000 feet immigration and visa office of New Zealand was extended by another 8000 square feet.

Over in Africa, the Nigerian film industry ‘Nollywood’ has had some of its largest grossing films with scenes filmed in Dubai to cement the UAE as a dream destination to its viewers. Omo Ghetto (The Saga) one of Nigeria’s highest grossing films has scenes shoot in Dubai, and The Wedding Party 2: Destination Dubai portrayed the UAE as glitz and glamour and one of the most sought after destination wedding location for Nigerians.

Korean tourism has been boosted due to the Hallyu Wave, where the popularity Korea’s entertainment including K-pop, K-dramas and Korean movies. In 2019, the Korean Tourism Office survey suggested that 55 percent of inbound tourism was influenced by the popularity of South Korean drama and film. Such is the impact and popularity of Korean exports is that Netflix is to invest $2.5bn in new South Korea films and TV shows over the next four years.

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Your Dream Destination: Directed by a Tourism Board 

Coming to a cinema near you, a movie designed to make you dash to book your next big vacation. Tourism authorities are keenly aware of the growing impact the films and shows we are consuming are impacting our travel patterns and working closely with film studios to capture your hearts and hopefully a long average length of stay. You’ll be forgiven for confusing some parts of the 2018 hit ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ as a giant advertisement for Singapore (one that Singapore Air might be kicking themselves for missing out on). The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) worked closely with the producers of Crazy Rich Asians granting access to filming locations and thus ensuring prominent Singaporean landmarks such Marina Bay Sands, CHIJMES, and Newton Hawker Centre were featured in the film.

El nombre es Bond. James Bond. In 2016’s ‘Spectre’ the British agent with the license to kill swapped his infamous shaken martini for a margarita with the pre-credit ‘Day of the Dead’ Parade sequence in Mexico City. This was courtesy of the Mexican government who offered the film producers $20 million in incentives to film there as long as Mexico was shown in a positive light, the villain was non-Mexican and a Mexican actress got a role as the iconic Bond girl.

More recently, the Indian blockbuster Pathaan had the support of the Dubai authorities when the entire Burj Khalifa boulevard was shut down for the first time ever for any film (as if downtown Dubai traffic wasn’t bad enough). Gaining such approvals does help when the lead actor Shah Rukh Khan is the Dubai brand ambassador of course.

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Reality TV & Travel: Escapism²

As the advent of reality TV has shifted global society and culture, altering our perception of celebrity and even shifting politics (thanks Apprentice US), it has also impacted the preferences of tourists to travel to destinations made popular by their reality TV favourites (or villains). The competitive reality TV show ‘Survivor’ reportedly increases tourism to the unique destinations featured each season on average by upwards of 35 percent. Equally as competitive, season three of the ‘Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip’ has recently been snapped by the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), banking on glamorous housewives throwing shade at each other will encourage fans of the seek the shade of some palm trees in Phuket.

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Location, Location, Location: Film Incentives Edition

Several nations offer government aid and incentives to improve the attractiveness of the country as a location for filmmaking. Typically, countries offer tax relief in the form of tax credits ranging from 10-20 percent, depending on the location and the amount of budget spent on the location. Others provide cash rebates paying back on qualifying expenditures on pre-production, production and post-production cost.

But some are not stopping at just cash rebate or tax sops, with Singapore Tourism Board & Infocomm Media Development Authority setting up a S$10 million (US$7.5 million) fund to support international films that showcase Singapore to a global audience, hoping to find the next ‘Crazy Rich Asians’. The Saudi Cultural Development Fund officially unveiled its Film Sector Financing Program which will be loans and investments worth a total $234 million over the next three years to both local and international companies to film in Saudi Arabia.

Besides influencing the masses to flock to their nations, these expenditures have positive impacts on and generating income and employment. For example the UK’s Film, High-End Television and Animation Programme Tax Reliefs in 2016 generated 126,580 employment FTEs, up 62 percent from 2013, a total gross value added of £7.91 billion up 73 percent and £2.04 billion in tax revenue, up 67 percent.

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UAE: Coming to a Screen Near You

Developing the creative industry has been a key consideration of the UAE, with several high-profile film franchises such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Mission Impossible and Fast & Furious having scenes shot within the UAE.

UAE-based Reality TV has also hit to an international audience, with The Real Housewives of Dubai, Netflix’s Dubai Bling and UK Channel 4’s upcoming show Made In Dubai making waves home and overseas, highlighting the luxury lifestyles of the rich in Dubai (Lord, I see what you’ve done for other people…).

As this trend continues to grow, the hope is that by capturing the UAE’s appeal onscreen, its beautiful architecture, natural surroundings, and a unique culture, this will ensure a steady stream of tourists for decades to come. Leading the charge to make this happen are Abu Dhabi entities such as Abu Dhabi Film Commission supports the development of Abu Dhabi’s film and TV industry and twofour54, the media free zone that provides world-class infrastructure and support services to media companies, freelancers and professionals.

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Abu Dhabi Leveraging The Silver Screen

So how can Abu Dhabi and the wider UAE look to leverage this the boom in set-jetting to boost tourism? One way would support be to create dedicated attractions and tourism products centered around the popular movies filmed in the region. Whilst it’s unclear why the proposed Star Wars set for Liwa did not transpire, perhaps if the newly announced Star Wars 10 movie requires Jakku again this could be revisited, possibly with dune buggies styled as a Desert Skiff and recreating the Qui-Gon & Darth Maul ‘Duel in the Desert’.

Another attraction opportunity is the upcoming sci-fi blockbuster ‘Dune: Part Two’ starring Timothee Chalamet and Zendaya, which was filmed in Liwa as well as upcoming American TV series ‘Last Light’, an apocalyptic thriller based on a bestselling novel shot in multiple locations in Abu Dhabi as the mythical city of Luzrah.

Alongside the existing blockbusters and sepia filter movies, Abu Dhabi could also look to produce new original content with compelling storytelling that captures the essence of the Emirate and promote it overseas. Maybe an A24 romantic film where an Arab business mogul falling in love with an American pop star following a cute meet at Louvre Abu Dhabi, then bonding at the Arabian Wildlife Park on Sir Bani Yas Island. Perhaps HBO could develop a fictional kingdom with a family patriarch and ruler playing his sons against each other as they vie to be the next Crown Prince.

Following the success of historical drama shows like ‘Vikings’ and ‘Game of Thrones’, the story of the undefeated warrior Khalid Ibn Al-Walid, the ‘Sword of Allah’ is a concept well deserving of being developed for the big screen. Marvel could repurpose their Arabian Knight character, creating a modern superhero for the Gulf region. The Arabic classic tales in ‘One Thousand and One Nights’ could be adapted into an animated movie (If any of these concepts inspire you budding scriptwriters out there, all I humbly ask is for a premiere ticket and a producer credit).

Set-jetting has tremendous potential for countries looking to capitalize on their iconic locations and cultural heritage to attract global audiences. However in order to attract the film production companies to Abu Dhabi, it will need to stay attractive as a destination in the face of increasing competition in the region. Whilst offering a 30 percent cash-back rebate on Abu Dhabi qualifying production spend, Film Saudi now offers a cash rebate worth up to 40 percent in qualifying costs, underlining Saudi Arabia’s large film and TV production sector ambitions. Amongst rising film production costs and no longer having the most generous incentive in the Gulf region, Abu Dhabi may need to relook at its financial incentives, as well as maximum rebates available at $5 million for feature films and $1 million for TV shows and series.