Exploring film tourism potential in Ireland: from Game of Thrones to Star Wars

Resumo

Film as a medium can exert a powerful influence on its audience. A growing body of literature provides evidence that cinematic film and television drama productions can influence people’s travel decisions and entice them to visit particular destinations they have seen on screen. This paper applies the concept of film-induced tourism to Ireland, from the context of early productions of the 1950’s through to a particular focus on more recent high profile examples such as Game of Thrones and Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Global online research (netnography) was undertaken with the fan-base of Game of Thrones, further supplemented with analysis of social media content relating to the 2015 Star Wars film and the Irish island location of Skellig Michael. Findings reveal very strong fan bases with respect to each case and a strong interest in the Ireland based locations. Awareness appears to be high and growing in each case which highlights enormous potential for Ireland to grow as a film tourism destination.