Lonely Planet blog

World cinema often has the ability to inspire travel, but it also can deter us from going to a place as well.

New Zealand

Things are pretty rosy these days after the success of The Lord of Rings trilogy of films. Tourism is booming to the land of the long white cloud. Cinema-goers associated New Zealand with the Middle Earth landscapes captured in the movies, but wisely realised that they wouldn’t encounter any Ringwraiths while hiking the Milford Sound.
Things weren’t so bright, though, in 1993 when The Piano gave the world a period re-interpretation of  The Shining‘s idea of married life. Next year Once Were Warriors confirmed that things hadn’t progressed much in contemporary New Zealand culture. Its portrayal of a Maori nuclear family represented New Zealand as a post-apocalyptic wasteland of violence.

Australia

Crocodile Dundee (1986) gave the world Australia. Tourism boomed. The key to Crocodile Dundee‘s tourism success was its portrayal of Mick Dundee as a disarming and quirky noble savage. “Come to Australia,” it said, “and feel welcome and superior to the locals.” Twenty years later Wolf Creek (2005) destroyed that image with another Mick. In the film, Mick Taylor (closely based on real Australian serial killers) preys on tourists down under.
 
 
 

France

There are loads of films set in France that make me want to go. But none of them surpasses Betty Blue (1986). This is France’s version of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, but the core of its appeal is the French take on sex (and with it life in general). The best way to describe how sex is portrayed is “household”. Where American films portray violence as un-shameful, in French films it is sex that isn’t shameful. This characterisation has since been undermined by the very disturbing Irreversible (2002). 
 
 

Vietnam

When the American forces left Vietnam, Hollywood began its celluloid war on the nation. The first great Vietnam war film is The Deer Hunter (1978), and possibly still the one that puts off people going to Vietnam the most. War is hell, but the Russian roulette scene in The Deer Hunter was a one-sided indictment of atrocities. Two films by Tran Anh Hung resurrected peacetime Vietnam: The Scent of a Green Papaya (1993) and Cyclo (1995). Both are lush, taciturn movies that capture the daily life of Vietnam. Cyclo, however, is the darker of the two, as it reworks Taxi Driver (1976) into a Vietnamese setting. Strangely, Cyclo made me visit Vietnam more than The Scent….

Tell us which movies have made you want to go to a destination (or avoid it).

Hide 7 comments

1. May 13, 2010 webgeekstress Report this comment

   XXX (with Vin Diesel) was in part responsible for what turned out to be a 2 1/2 year sojourn in Prague.

   Brideshead Revisited (the BBC one with Jeremy Irons, Anthony Andrews and Diana Quick) sent me to Morocco (which I actually found disappointing).

2. May 13, 2010 bettynewelty Report this comment

   Check out our top 10 movies that inspire travel. You may be surprised by the offerings. We purposefully didn’t include Crocodile Dundee. A sneak peek:
   The Fugitive–Chicago
   Goodbye Lenin–Berlin
   For the complete list, go to: http://www.newelty.com/2010/03/30/travel-movies-we-love-the-giveaway/

3. May 13, 2010 ukdestination Report this comment

   Notting Hill inspired all kinds of romantic tourists, not sure if it’s all that romantic in rela life to be honest.

4. May 14, 2010 wastedwanderer Report this comment

   Pride and Prejudice honestly was the reason I took long drives and hikes through the UK because the setting was just so perfect

5. May 16, 2010 newsoft Report this comment

   For Vietnam, the epic story of the end of the french era see Indochine:
   http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104507/

6. May 17, 2010 pappyfromoz Report this comment

   ‘In Bruges’. Majority of the film is spent bad mouthing the place (profanities thanks to Colin Farrell). But you can’t ignore the amazing scenery. Quaint, but it was truly worth the trip.

7. January 29, 2011 ciara36 Report this comment

   Hi all
   I am very interested in how different forms of media such as films, music and literature can influence the decision to travel, or not to travel to a particular place. I am currently conducting research into the growing potential of music tourism. My research is mainly focussed on Belfast. Belfast’s music scene is receiving growing international recognition, producing the likes of Van Morrison and Snow Patrol, and developing new music tourism intiatives. The question of whether or not these developments will influence tourists to visit the city is one I am looking to find some information on.

   Many thanks
   Ciara