Popular mediums of media including film, television, internet and print media can influence the appeal of certain travel destinations and activities. It can prompt a desire or avert tourism destinations as suggested by MacCannell (1976) these media forms can highly construct or highlight particular images of destinations to act as a marker. Prospective tourists base their knowledge on such information provided whether to travel or not to particular destinations.
Film induced tourism can also bring about an increase in the cultural value of the film location being heritage sites. Firstly, in the case of New Zealand’s Maori culture has gained recognisable status through media exposure. The film Whale Rider (2002) for instance thoroughly demonstrates the Maori culture. In customary Maori culture the beliefs, clothing, animals, plants and certain landforms are spiritually linked with particular groups of individuals. The film represents this through the whales being the ancient symbol for the Ngati Konohi community. Thus, by maintaining a sense of identity it offers an opportunity for individuals to reflect and provide expressions of self. Additionally, this film can attract individuals strongly interested in culture especially of New Zealand’s Maori culture.
As well as this heritage sites which have been set as film locations gain fame and recognition by its audience after the release of the film. These locations often gain meaning through film narration. For example Mission Impossible 2 (2000) was filmed at the Sydney Royal National Park. Due to the popularity of the film series an increase of visits to the park occurred during 2000 the year the film was released. Hence, can be evidently seen media plays a major role in encouraging tourism to certain destinations. However, with the expansion of different types of visitors to a destination it could also provoke an