{"id":6796,"date":"2018-07-16T00:30:43","date_gmt":"2018-07-15T16:30:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/australia-needs-pop-culture-tourism-heres\/"},"modified":"2022-12-07T13:08:41","modified_gmt":"2022-12-07T05:08:41","slug":"australia-needs-pop-culture-tourism-heres","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/australia-needs-pop-culture-tourism-heres\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia needs pop culture tourism \u2013 here\u2019s why"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alnwick Castle, St Bartholomew\u2019s Hospital, Matamata. Many people will never have heard of these locations, but to the devout few, they are places of pilgrimage.<\/p>\n

England\u2019s Alnwick Castle isn\u2019t just the stately home of the Duke of Northumberland, it is the 1000-year-old Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the first two Harry Potter <\/em>films. St Bartholomew\u2019s Hospital is where Sherlock Holmes (Benedict Cumberbatch) staged his death in the spectacular Season 2 cliffhanger of BBC\u2019s Sherlock<\/em>. And Matamata isn\u2019t just a New Zealand town \u2013 it is where undulating green hills gave birth to the Hobbiton movie set featured in Sir Peter Jackson\u2019s The Lord of the Rings <\/em>and The Hobbit <\/em>film trilogies.<\/p>\n

These examples aren\u2019t isolated. They are part of a burgeoning global tourism industry known by many names \u2013 screen-based tourism, literary tourism, pop culture tourism \u2013 and it is already having a measurable impact, particularly across the ditch.<\/p>\n

In 2004, six per cent of tourists said The Lord of the Rings <\/em>trilogy was one of the main reasons they visited New Zealand. One per cent said it was the main reason, equating to NZ$32.8m in spend. This number increased in 2014, just before the final film in The Hobbit <\/em>trilogy, when 13 per cent of tourists said The Hobbit <\/em>films influenced their decision to visit.<\/p>\n

Â鶹ֱ²¥\u2019s Dr Christina Lee believes Australia, and Western Australia in particular, should fully embrace the possibilities of pop culture tourism.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re seeing a huge market for this sort of tourism,\u201d Lee says.<\/p>\n

\u201cAustralia probably had its heyday with Crocodile Dundee <\/em>in the 1980s. We haven\u2019t seen an influx of tourists of that magnitude since, even though so many films have been shot in Australia.\u201d<\/p>\n

Working with mixed reality expert Professor Erik Champion<\/a>, Lee recently organised a symposium that brought together WA-based leaders in academia, tourism, screen production and virtual reality, to share ideas on how WA can develop a pop culture tourism industry.<\/p>\n

The pair plan to visit Wellington to develop a model for pop culture tourism with officials from Wellington City Council and acclaimed special effects and props company, Weta Workshop. Lee says New Zealand is the perfect place to test the model because of the success of Jackson\u2019s films and tourism marketing campaigns that have linked the country with Middle-earth.<\/p>\n

\u201cSuccessful pop culture tourism merges actual and imaginary geographies. New Zealand has done this successfully by merging the Tolkienverse and the Maori culture<\/a> in their tourism advertisements, but we\u2019re looking to see what else could be done,\u201d Lee says.<\/p>\n

Once the model is tested, Lee hopes to bring it to WA.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no reason why Western Australia couldn\u2019t be successful. We don\u2019t have multi-billion-dollar production facilities, but we do have quite spectacular landscapes. Our beaches are pristine and they stretch as far as the eye can see. Our red dirt is almost alien-like,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\"Red
For many people who come to WA, a long drive across the Outback is part of the adventure.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIf we capitalise on these strengths, we could encourage more low budget films to shoot here, and if tax breaks were given as an added incentive, maybe even big budget films.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople will come to Western Australia because they will want to see the rugged and untamed landscape they\u2019ve seen onscreen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Already, WA has begun to feel the benefits of pop culture tourism from recent film productions.<\/p>\n

The Shire of Denmark has reported an anecdotal increase in the number of tourists over summer, autumn and winter, thanks in part to Simon Baker\u2019s Breath<\/em>, based on Curtin graduate Tim Winton\u2019s novel of the same name, and enquiries about locations featured in the film.<\/p>\n

\"The
Locations near the coastal WA town of Denmark were featured in Simon Baker\u2019s Breath.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Local businesses are becoming familiar with these fictional worlds. Perth-based film tourism consultant Ian Brodie, the former Media & Communications Manager for the Hobbiton Movie Set and author of the bestselling The Lord of the Rings Location Guidebook<\/em>, explains:<\/p>\n

\u201cSuccess requires close co-operation between production teams, tourism, consultants and researchers. But more than that, you\u2019ve got to love it \u2013 both the film and the place it\u2019s shot in. The cast and crew have to be excited to promote it and the locations they\u2019ve worked on.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPop culture tourism is all about the experience of the individual. They hope to be transported. Successful tours draw people in to the story and evoke the imagination,\u201d Lee adds.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 2009, I went on a nine-day, Harry Potter<\/em>-themed Spells and Charms Tour in the UK. In addition to filming locations, we went to places where the cast frequented or locations that evoked the films, which placed the importance of Harry Potter <\/em>side-by-side with actual history.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe magic is that fact and fiction are as important as each other.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

And yes, making more movies here is a good first step.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4275,"featured_media":6797,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_research-areas":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,3,82],"tags":[],"research-areas":[],"class_list":["post-6796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-art-and-design","category-campus-and-global-community","category-society-and-culture"],"acf":{"post_options":{"":null,"additional_content":{"title":"","content":"","image":false},"related_courses":[{"title":"Literary and Cultural Studies","qualification":"Bachelor of Arts (Literary and Cultural Studies)","link":"https:\/\/study.curtin.edu.au\/offering\/course-ug-literary-and-cultural-studies-major-ba--mjru-litcu\/#linkid=hum-news-courses","description":"Explore the development of cultures and how meanings within them are circulated.","faculty":"Humanities"},{"title":"Social and Cultural Inquiry","qualification":"Master of Arts (Social and Cultural Inquiry)","link":"https:\/\/study.curtin.edu.au\/offering\/course-pg-social-and-cultural-inquiry-major-marts--mjrp-socui\/#linkid=hum-news-courses","description":"Learn critical and theoretical understandings of the ways that contemporary cultures are affected by, and react to, processes of global change.","faculty":"Humanities"},{"title":"Screen Arts","qualification":"Master of Arts (Screen Arts)","link":"https:\/\/study.curtin.edu.au\/offering\/course-pg-screen-arts-major-marts--mjrp-scrar\/#linkid=hum-news-courses","description":"This major is an excellent springboard for a career in the film, television and media industries, combining practical production skills with creative and analytical thinking.","faculty":"Humanities"}],"credits":{"author":"","photographer":{"title":"Matthew Combs","url":"#","target":""},"media":false},"display_author":true,"banner":{"image":false}}},"featured_image":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Hobbiton-Movie-Set-picture_Matthew-Combs_WP.jpg","author_meta":{"first_name":"Curtin","last_name":"University","display_name":"Â鶹ֱ²¥"},"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-25 11:01:31","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4275"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6796\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6796"},{"taxonomy":"research-areas","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-areas?post=6796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}