This year the People’s Coast Summit 2023, took place in Astoria, Oregon. Hosted by the Oregon Coast Visitors Association, Erik Nachtrieb (CEO, SetJetters) was invited to present a keynote address on Film Tourism, and how travel organizations can embrace this growing tourism sector. The Oregon Film Trail is partnered with SetJetters to raise Oregon’s filmed history profile, both within our Oregon communities and beyond the state boundaries.
Below are some key takeaways from Nachtrieb’s presentation:
- Film tourism is a $66B dollar industry and is described by Expedia Group as the new direction of travel.
- Oregon has over 100 years of film production history, 500+ projects have been filmed in the state, and currently, 500+ scene locations can be visited in person using the SetJetters app.
- The Oregon Film Trail/SetJetters partnership organizes these film scenes in a digital map application.
- Film tourism is really about the discovery of local Oregon areas and amenities. SetJetter’s “Beyond the Frame” feature showcases local attractions, amenities, and points of interest near scene locations, exposing the film tourist to a broader local experience and thus increasing the economic potential of each film tourist.
- 120M people engage in film tourism annually. To keep the scene locations viable, local regions need to be prepared for film tourism – not only to reap the economic benefits but also to utilize tools to promote, protect, and develop filming locations.
- Oregon’s communities have a (no-cost) resource in the Oregon Film Office to help prepare them for any potential visiting productions. They can also advise on capturing ongoing economic tourism benefits.
The keynote presentation was a great success, with many attendees either discovering or realizing the benefits of film tourism for the first time, and the extent to which film tourism is supported in Oregon. To quote several attendees, “This has our wheels turning! There are so many opportunities (in film tourism).”
Nachtrieb noted that SetJetter’s goal is to, “aggregate global filming locations and assist film fans in locating their favorite film scene locations. We find ourselves consolidating a market and opening up some of the first film tourism dialogue and partnerships between tourism, film offices, and the local communities.”
Film Tourism (known also as SetJetting) is ever-increasing and it is becoming clear that building a physical trail infrastructure and working with our Oregon communities to attract and accommodate visitors (both local and far-flung) is economically beneficial. Oregon Film Trail’s partnership with SetJetters extends the Oregon Film Trail initiative so that visitors from anywhere in the world can easily find exact scene locations around Oregon via the interactive mobile app. The app not only allows the user to find locations but also provides discoverability to special deals and experiences within Oregon’s local communities, as well as the ability to capture on-site location photos from visitors’ favorite films. Additionally, SetJetters can capture visitor data from each of the Oregon Film Trail signs and points of interest, making it possible to determine what areas are performing well.
For information on how your community can benefit, or to suggest a scene location in your community, contact [email protected], or [email protected].
