Its good to see such a strong response by the AFCI to film tourism at this years Cineposium in Wellington, New Zealand.
We have been working on developing a film tourism business model that will work for our clients and ourselves. Its slow progress working out the up and downs of options but we think we are getting there.
Having had a few conversations recently it has become apparent that some old problems are rasing their heads. The main one is sustainability.
If any project is to be sustainable it must be of such a benefit to its target audience that the audience puts time or money into it. This is a clear warning to agencies not to believe they can do such a good job someone else will take it over when the money runs out. It has to make sense to tourism businesses from the start. This leaves two options:
I underline my point. No matter how great a web site is it will fail if it does not have money or people to keep it that way. I believe it is possible to combine the information that film offices hold with the latest web technologies to be seen as an important partner but not having to do all the work.
Had a really good meeting on Friday with a film commission (Scottish Highlands and Islands) and our web tourism expert Rene Looper from 4TM (our partner company). Open Brolly and our partners are undertaking a practical implementation of film tourism.
This involves tourism-friendly accommodation through to post release/broadcast tourism. We see it as a combination of technology and people skills. We will record the project as it now progresses. Its underway!