DMOs have a high interest and high power in influencing the development of a film
tourism destination as it represents a new opportunity—be that for an existing, emerging
or new destination—and this interest has been highly investigated in most literature outlined
above. The importance and potential success of films as part of product placement in
the marketing process has been briefly discussed above.
Close cooperation between DMOs and the film industry proposing to use the destination
as a location is essential to assure the sustainable planning of tourism development. DMOs
have little or no control over how, or for whom, the destination is presented through commercial
films. Even if destination planners are involved in the early stages of the filmmaking
process, they would have no influence over the filming, storyline, cinematography,
or other aspects of the film and thus would have no influence over the audience or target
38 S. Heitmann
group. The DMO has a less powerful stance here and will have to adapt their strategy in
order to align it to the vision of the film, which would reflect Hall’s idea of adaptive planning
(2008). This can be problematic if the genre or story of the film is negative. Tourism
in general is perceived to be the happy industry, and any image of a destination should be
portrayed in the most positive light in order to attract tourists. DMOs have been keen to
include the film industry in their decision-making process (through the attraction of film
producers), as evidenced in many cases (see CanagaRetna, 2007). VisitScotland provides
training for tourism professionals that wish to attract film crews in order to expand on the
long-term impacts of what they term “location tourism” (VisitScotland, 2007).