Film Tourism and the Image of the Destination: Preliminary Impacts on Host Communities

In recent decades, film tourism has expanded throughout the world. Increasingly, authors present the definitions, behaviors, and motivations of film tourists. Film tourism has a range of positive impacts, such as strengthening scenic beauty, reinforcing local pride, preserving local culture, conserving natural resources, attracting investment, improving local infrastructure, increasing the number of facilities, and broadening employment opportunities. The main purpose was defined based on understanding how film tourism and the image of the destination impact host communities in Portugal. In addition, three specific objectives were defined: to evaluate the attractiveness of Portugal as a cinematographic destination using cognitive image; to analyze sociodemographic characteristics with the impact of film tourism; and to evaluate the affective image of the host community because of the impacts of film tourism. To respond to these objectives, a questionnaire was created and administered to 125 residents in Portugal. From the data collected and the application of the ANOVA test and Pearson correlation, it is concluded that the age group of the host community determines the impacts of film tourism on the location and the impacts of film tourism will determine the feeling of the local community when viewing Portugal in films/series. In terms of the limitations of the study, it is important to note that there is still not enough up-to-date information on the concept of film tourism. Furthermore, the length of the questionnaire constitutes a constraint on attracting participants to this study. In future studies, it is proposed to analyze cinematographic tourism by region, considering the works filmed in these locations. Furthermore, the creation of focus groups and exploratory interviews is essential for the exchange of ideas and knowledge.