reCAPITALizing the Image: Demarketing Undesired Film-Induced Images

Film is a potent imaging medium, and such images are often retained for many years. While destinations now recognise the potential of film to induce tourism and create a powerful destination image, few have retained control over how and to whom the destination is presented through commercial films (in particular, movies and TV series). This lack of control has resulted in unplanned tourism growth that many small communities are unable to handle due to limited infrastructure, and has severely impacted on the privacy of residents. The aim of this paper is to consider the situation when film-induced tourism becomes too successful, impacting negatively on communities. By looking at popular film-induced tourism sites that are experiencing large numbers of visitors and associated impacts along with attempts to overcome these issues, the extent of the issues is highlighted. There is evidence of resident dissatisfaction regarding the increased pressures on infrastructure and lifestyle at many of the sites as well as some concerns over images portrayed in some storylines. While problems are evident, little is being done to proactively manage the sites, with tourism managers and DMOs still focussing primarily on economic benefits. This premise is supported by the research results that indicate that at the point of promotion there is limited conscious application of strategies to handle the issues of crowding and loss of privacy. An integrated marketing-demarketing strategy is proposed as a means to address the issues reported.