Zealand as ‘Middle-Earth’ Tourists' Experiences of Film Locations:...

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Tourism Geographies

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Tourists' Experiences of Film Locations: NewZealand as ‘Middle-Earth’

Daniela Carl , Sara Kindon & Karen Smith

To cite this article: Daniela Carl , Sara Kindon & Karen Smith (2007) Tourists' Experiencesof Film Locations: New Zealand as ‘Middle-Earth’, Tourism Geographies, 9:1, 49-63, DOI:10.1080/14616680601092881

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Tourism GeographiesVol. 9, No. 1, 49–63, February 2007

Tourists’ Experiences of Film Locations:New Zealand as ‘Middle-Earth’

DANIELA CARL∗, SARA KINDON∗∗ & KAREN SMITH†∗Centre for Tourism and Cultural Change, Leeds Metropolitan University, Leeds, UK∗∗Institute of Geography, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand†Victoria Management School, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand

ABSTRACT Over a decade ago it was noted that there was a lack of academic research on film-induced tourism. A number of studies since have explored this phenomenon and the benefits,both during production and after cinematic release, for host destinations. As an example, TheLord of the Rings (LOTR) film trilogy has exposed New Zealand to a global audience of potentialtravellers. By packaging and promoting it as the ‘Home of Middle-Earth’, New Zealand – anddestinations within it – have become the iconic landscapes of the trilogy. However, as withmany other film tourism destinations, the screen locations are a mix of real places, film setsand digital enhancements; the tourists will not necessary be able to experience the landscapesof the films. This paper presents empirical research undertaken with three tourism operatorsoffering LOTR-themed products: surveys were conducted with tour participants to exploretheir motivations, expectations and experiences of the cultural landscapes of LOTR films. Thefindings suggest that the more perfect the representation of hyper-reality in the tours, the higherthe satisfaction and the more enhanced the tourist experience. In addition, some film touristsdesire to step into the former backdrop of the film to be part of the film when re-enacting filmscenes. By better understanding how tourists experience these cultural landscapes, tourismoperators and destination marketers can provide the experience film tourists are seeking andthus expand the beneficial effects of film tourism on destinations.

KEY WORDS: Film tourism, tourists’ experience, iconic landscape, Lord of the Rings (LOTR),New Zealand

Introduction

‘Places, and images of places, are fundamental to the practice of tourism’ (Williams1998: 172). The power of film images to induce tourism to a place previously por-trayed in film is shown in a variety of academic research (e.g. Riley 1994 and Tookeand Baker 1996). The representation of New Zealand’s landscapes in the films of TheLord of the Rings (LOTR) has led to the construction of new tourism spaces, thus,

Correspondence Address: Daniela Carl, Centre for Tourism and Cultural Change, Faculty of Arts & Society,Leeds Metropolitan University, The Old School Board, Calverley Street, Leeds LS1 3ED, UK. Fax +44(0)113 283 8544; Tel.: +44 (0)113 283 8541; Email: [email protected] 1461-6688 Print/1470-1340 Online /07/01/00049–15 C© 2007 Taylor & FrancisDOI: 10.1080/14616680601092881

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new ‘landscapes of pleasure’ tailor-made for film tourists’ consumption (Shaw andWilliams 2004). New Zealand has wholeheartedly embraced the relationship betweenfilm images and tourism (Piggott et al. 2004). With the production and global releaseof the film trilogy The Lord of the Rings between 2001 and 2003, the New Zealandgovernment and many commercial operators have invested in extensive promotionof New Zealand as ’Middle-Earth’ (the mythical world of J. R. R. Tolkien’s books).For a number of tourists, the packaging and promotion of New Zealand destinationsas the iconic landscapes of the films motivated their travel to New Zealand or theirparticipation in LOTR tourist products while in the country, but what do they actu-ally experience on these tours? Within the films, the scenes are a mix of the ‘real’landscapes, film sets and post-production digital modifications. They are interwovenwith the performance of the actors, the narrative elements taking place within theplot and the extra-diagetic sound and music. In contrast, the locations where filmingtook place frequently provide little access to these elements of the film experience.Rather they tend to offer the unadulterated geographical ‘back-drop’ to the action or,where there are tour guides present, behind-the-scenes anecdotes and stories about thefilm-making process itself. This disjunction between the hyper-real and the real (seeMitchell 1998) has implications for levels of tourist satisfaction and the long-termsustainability of LOTR tourism within New Zealand.

This paper briefly discusses film tourists’ motivations for participating in LOTRtourism experiences before focusing on their expectations of, and satisfaction with,the cultural landscapes of LOTR films as experienced through three LOTR themedtourism products. The discussion draws on a mixed-method empirical work utilizingvisitor surveys and interviews with tourists and operators within a case study approachfocusing on three tourism operators offering LOTR experiences: a two-hour tour of theformer Hobbiton film site in Matamata, near Hamilton in the North Island; a four-hourjeep safari of the filming locations around Queensland in the South Island; and, for theLOTR enthusiast, a 13-day package tour of filming locations around New Zealand.

The paper is structured as follows. First, some of the recent literature and debatesassociated with the rise of film tourism and tourist experience are reviewed. Key ele-ments of this review are then situated within New Zealand by exploring its promotionas ’Middle-Earth’ and tourists’ experiences of the three LOTR themed products men-tioned above. The research findings are then discussed in relation to their implicationsfor the further development of film tourism in New Zealand and for future researchon tourist experience more generally.

Experiencing Film Tourism

Leisure activities, such as watching a film as well as travelling, are a way to escape.Both provide temporary relief from the ‘real’ or familiar. When experiencing a film,the audience is plunged into a fantasy world in between the imaginary and the real,which makes an important part of the cinematic experience (Turner 1988). When on

Tourists’ Experiences of Film Locations 51

holiday, tourists also enter a kind of fantasy world in between the imagined and realcultures and places being visited. Film tourism is partly based on tourists’ demands toescape into this in-between world and experience the cultural landscapes representedin films. In this sense, the landscapes act as tourist attractions and serve to increasepotential tourists’ awareness of a destination and familiarize them with it. For a long-haul destination, such as New Zealand, the possible familiarization process throughfilm and its attendant perceived risk reduction have the potential to increase touristnumbers.

The relationship between a successful film and increased tourist numbers in afeatured destination has been demonstrated elsewhere. Riley and Van Doren (1992)showed how films can act as hallmark events and as pull factors to increase touristnumbers based on research at former film sites in the USA (such as Rayburn Country,Georgia, where Deliverance was filmed, and Fort Hays, Kansas, the location forDances with Wolves) and in Australia (where Crocodile Dundee was filmed). Theyconcluded that three criteria of a successful film are crucial to induce film tourism:‘uniqueness, status or timely significance’, arguing that ‘if a film has these qualitiesit will magnify the tourism potential of a destination’ (Riley and Van Doren 1992:269).

More recent research has followed up this film and tourism relationship. How thetourist gaze impacts on former film locations has been researched by Riley et al.(1998) through their analysis of changes in visitor numbers at ten former film sitesin the USA. Croy and Walker (2003) examined how film(s) can be used for imagingand branding a destination. Film and its impact on a destination’s image have beenassessed by Kim and Richardson (2003). Their study, analysing Before Sunrise, whichwas filmed in Vienna, and Groundhog Day, filmed in a small town in Pennsylvania,focused on how images in film can influence viewers’ perceptions of a place. Researchhas also been focused on in-depth analysis of the impact of television series: Beeton(2001) used a case study approach to analyse how Sea Change changed the visitorprofile in Barwon Heads, Victoria, Australia. Connell (2005a, 2005b) investigatedthe impact of marketing, and the changed visitor profile, on small tourism enterpriseson the Island of Mull, Scotland, following its use as the location for the pre-schoolchildren’s TV programme Balamory. O’Connor (2001) examined the socio-culturalimpacts of Ballykissangel on the Irish village Avoca in County Wicklow. In addition,Beeton (2005) analysed the interconnection between film and tourism by drawingon a variety of film tourism examples. By doing so she also questioned the impactsof film tourism, both economic and social, and called for a more critical approachtowards film tourism. However, she also acknowledged that underdeveloped touristdestinations, in particular, can benefit from film-related tourism.

As mentioned above, film tourism is based on a form of escape via simulation,spectacle and sensations created by the interplay of film representations and ‘real’landscapes. Film tourists consume the familiar signs and symbols seen in the film(s)in environments that often dislocate and relocate the film’s narrative. In this context,

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Torchin’s research (2002) on the Manhattan TV Tour determined that the real land-scape is covered with several new layers of meaning for the consumption of filmtourists. By searching for what was portrayed in a film these tourists travel in a formof hyper-reality (Eco 1986) where “‘model” and “reality” are hopelessly confused ina world where access to unmediated reality is impossible’ (Couldry 1998: 94). Forfilm tourists, ‘the “completely real” [actual landscape] becomes identified with the“completely fake” [film portrayal of landscape]. Absolute unreality is offered as realpresence’ (Eco 1986: 7).

Film tourists experience/consume landscapes previously portrayed in film(s) notin their own right but in terms of the film(s) with which they are associated (Sterry1998). Tzanelli (2004: 27) argued that in the films of LOTR New Zealand’s landscapesare ‘transformed from nature into a cultural product’. It is the filmmakers’ portrayalthat creates the initial frame through which tourists experience former film sites. Thisis then interwoven with tourists’ own perceptions, expectations and motivations priorto the trip, the tourist product consumed and the post-trip evaluation of satisfaction(Page et al. 2001). The satisfaction level, in turn, is dependent upon whether a touristhas his/her expectations of the experience exceeded (Pizam et al. 1978). So, if thefilm tourist’s ‘real’ experience matches with his/her ‘hyper-real’ expectations, anauthentic experience is thought to have been achieved (Pocock 1992), which resultsin satisfaction.

In relation to this aspect of tourist experience, Mitchell (1998) has developed auseful a-priori model (Figure 1), which offers a framework for testing and under-standing hyper-real tourism and film tourists’ experiences. He argued that if touristexpectations are based on hyper-real images in film(s) and do not match with the

Figure 1. An experimental model of the influence of major motion pictures in tourism. Source:adapted and modified after Mitchell (1998: 14).


actual experience in situ, tourists may be dissatisfied. On the other hand, an experi-ence that matches the hyper-real expectations could lead to a satisfying experience.His ideas are shown graphically in Figure 1, where the question mark represents thelack of empirical research available to verify or refute his model.

Aden et al. (1995) analysed another aspect of film tourists’ experiences at the for-mer film site of the Field of Dreams in Dyersville, Iowa. They found that the priorwatching of the film by tourists resulted in them reading and performing aspects of thefilm location. In so doing, Aden et al. (1995: 377) argued that these visitors ‘simulta-neously produce[d] and perform[ed] their own individualized texts’ and formed ‘aninterpretive community within which individuals [felt] unique yet part of a larger con-gregation’. Beeton (2005) compared film tourism with pilgrimage when film touriststravel to Doune Castle/Scotland to re-enact scenes from the film Monty Python andthe Holy Grail. This is a point that will be returned to later in the paper.

Finally, Schofield (1996) researched the tourist experience on Manchester’s Hol-lywood of the North film location tour. He concluded that:

. . . the visitor’s direct and indirect perceptual experience consist of a sequenceof framed images from the window of an alternative media-themed heritagecoach tour to the actual cinema screen, with the latter pervading, mediating andfocusing the entire experience (Schofield 1996: 339).

Within the case of LOTR tours, tourists also experience the framing of images throughtour buses, jeeps or commentary of guides and other interpretative material, whichis mediated by the previous viewing of the films by the tourists themselves. Yet, noother studies have examined the role the tour guides have in this aspect of tourism todate.

Despite these studies, the lack of research evaluating the actual experience of filmtourists at former film sites has to be acknowledged. This paper is an attempt toaddress this gap and reports on the experiences of film tourists at three case studysites, which were portrayed in the first two LOTR films: The Fellowship of the Ring(released in December 2001) and The Two Towers (released in December 2002).

New Zealand as Middle-Earth

Riley and Van Doren (1992: 269) suggested that a film must have one or more ofthree qualities to create the potential for inducing tourism: ‘uniqueness, status ortimely significance’. The LOTR trilogy meets all these criteria: it is a unique cinemaachievement as Tolkien’s work was long believed to be ‘not translatable into a populardramatic art’, such as film (Reed 1984: 139); it has the unusual status of being filmedas one project with simultaneous filming on at least three sets over 18 months; andthe films’ focus on themes of friendship and a quest to rescue the world from evilforces were extremely timely given global politics in 2001 and the ensuing war onterrorism.

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New Zealand has no direct links with Tolkien or the European landscapes whichmay have inspired his mythical literary Middle-Earth. The decision to film the LOTRtrilogy in New Zealand can be attributed to Kiwi director Peter Jackson’s desire tofilm it here and the range of environments and locations on offer to him. The films arelandscape dominated and the film promotion has strongly emphasized New Zealand asthe films’ location. The films have been hugely successful in terms of both box-officeearnings and critical acclaim, with the third film, The Return of the King, winning11 Oscars in 2004. This success has exposed New Zealand’s landscapes to over 200million viewers world-wide (Tourism New Zealand 2003b).

New Zealand is a long-haul niche destination and received 2.1 million internationalvisitors arrivals in 2003 (the date of this paper’s research); its main markets beingAustralia (33.4%), the UK (12.6%), the USA (10.1%) and, to a lesser extent, Japan(7.2%) and South Korea (5.4%) (Tourism Research Council New Zealand (TRCNZ)2003). The national tourism organization, Tourism New Zealand, has attempted tocapitalize on LOTR screen exposure to further promote the country as a tourist des-tination. Their tourist web-site, www.purenz.com, has aligned itself with the filmtrilogy and unabashedly promoted New Zealand as the ’Home of Middle-Earth’ oreven more directly as ’Middle-Earth’ itself. Specific marketing campaigns have beenlinked to the release of each film and to significant film events such as the Oscars andother award ceremonies. For example, following Oscar nominations and successes,newspaper advertisements and a poster campaign promoted New Zealand as ‘BestSupporting Country in a Motion Picture’. Similarly, the national airline, Air NewZealand, has labelled itself ‘Airline to Middle-Earth’ and domestic and internationalpromotional campaigns have aligned the carrier, and the destination, to the trilogy. Bydeveloping the tourism promotions alongside the film project, together they have mu-tually reinforced the cultural authenticity of the project, and the connections betweenMiddle-Earth and New Zealand (Jones and Smith 2005).

The growing desire of people to visit locations featured in the films can be seenin the popularity of specific information sources, such as Ian Brodie’s (2002, 2003)Lord of the Rings Location Guidebook. Nation-wide tours and site-specific operatorshave integrated LOTR former film sites into their existing tours or are designing newproducts that focus exclusively on the portrayed locations. Tourism products with aLOTR focus include coach tours, helicopter flights, jet boat experiences and horsetreks. Whilst no statistical correlation between the films and tourist arrivals has yetbeen established, research commissioned by Tourism New Zealand (2003a) identifiedthat 86 percent of international visitors were aware prior to their visit that New Zealandwas the filming location for the trilogy; and 69 percent of potential visitors said thatthey were motivated to visit the country as a result of the films (Coventry 2003).However, the same study found that for nine out of ten international visitors LOTRwas not a factor in their decision to come to New Zealand. Beeton (2005: 231)attributed this to New Zealand’s isolation from the main tourism-generating regions,which in this regard acts as a ‘psychological barrier’.


The New Zealand government have also used LOTR to develop other aspects of theeconomy, in addition to tourism; for example, tax breaks and other initiatives to attractfilm productions (Clark 2001). The positive spin-off effects of major film projects,during filming as well as pre- and post-production, have been recognized at a nationallevel, although the level of public investment and the scale of the returns on theinvestment have not been without critics (Beeton 2005). Hudson and Ritchie (2006)emphasized the positive relationship between film tourism success and the proactiveefforts of destinations that encourage producers and studios to film at the location. Inline with this, government-funded Film New Zealand is using the diversity of NewZealand’s landscapes, as well as existing industry infrastructure, to attract other filmprojects. Through these aspects, it hopes to increase awareness about the countryand ‘to broaden the view of what New Zealand offers as a visitor destination’ (FilmNew Zealand 2001: 8). Other recent films such as Whale Rider (2003), The LastSamurai (2004), Sylvia (2004) and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witchand the Wardrobe (2005) have further developed awareness of New Zealand as a filmlocation.

Methodology

The empirical research used mixed-methods within a case study approach workingwith three tourism operators offering LOTR themed products. Questionnaire sur-veys were conducted with tourists on each of these tours and complemented withsemi-structured interviews with tourists and tour operators. Face-to-face and emailinterviews were also conducted with tour operators and staff in Visitor InformationCentres around New Zealand to place the case study findings in wider context. Theprimary data were gathered between June and September 2003 and focused on thefirst two films in the trilogy; the final instalment, The Return of the King, was outsidethe timeframe of the data collection, being released in December 2003.

Three case studies were chosen to represent examples of the range of LOTR productsthat have been developed. The first case study was a newly developed single-siteattraction: the Rings Scenic Tours is located in Matamata in the North Island Waikatoregion. Prior to the films this destination was little more than a refreshment stop onthe route between Auckland and Rotorua; however, the owners of the farm where theHobbiton set was built have developed a two-hour tour of the site. This has attracted15,000 visitors within the first year and is the only location where there are anyremains of the built film sets; elsewhere visitors can see only the landscapes thatprovided the backdrop to scenes within the films. The second case study was locatedin the South Island destination of Queenstown where a well-established off-road jeeptour operator Nomad Safari offers two Safari of the Rings tours; these were developedafter the potential of LOTR film tourism was recognized and covers former film sitesaround Queenstown, including the Pillars of the King, Ford of Bruinen, Isengard andLothlórien. The third case study, Red Carpet Tours, offers a multi-day experience: a

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13-day coach tour from Auckland to Christchurch, focusing on a variety of locationsportrayed in the LOTR films. The main promotion tool for marketing this productis LOTR internet fan site www.theonering.net; thus, the tours are mainly orientatedtowards LOTR enthusiasts.

The visitor survey aimed to provide a profile of LOTR film tourists, with the open-ended questions providing qualitative data on visitor motivations and experiences. Intotal there were 132 completed questionnaires: 73.5 percent of the survey responseswere from Rings Scenic Tours in Matamata (n = 97), 14.4 percent from Safari ofthe Rings tours in Queenstown (n = 19), and 12.1 percent of the questionnaires werecollected within two Red Carpet Tours (n = 16). Although the total numbers were low,particularly for the latter two case studies, the average response rate over the fieldworkwas 87 percent. This high response rate illustrates the film tourists’ excitement abouttheir visit to the former film locations and their desire to share their experience.

Tourists’ Experiences of The Lord of the Rings Tours

The Lord of the Rings Film Tourists

The survey produced a profile of the tourists taking these LOTR tours: 57 percent ofrespondents were female, with half of the visitors aged between 16 and 34 years ofage. Three-quarters had watched the films between one and ten times, and two-thirdsof respondents were staying in New Zealand for 2–3 weeks. Respondents includedboth domestic (9.8%) and international tourists (90.2%); the majority of the latteroriginated from other English-speaking countries (81%) and were first-time visitorsto New Zealand (84.2%). This is a longer stay than the seven-night average for NewZealand but corresponds with visitor arrival data on main countries of origin and ageprofile (TRCNZ 2003).

Two main types of film tourists, with different motivations for travel, were identi-fied. For those participating in the short LOTR tours (Rings Scenic Tours and Safariof the Rings), the primary motivation for travel was to experience New Zealand and aLOTR trip was an interesting addition to their itinerary, particularly if they had alreadyseen the films. In contrast, tourists travelling on the multi-day LOTR tour (Red CarpetTours) had travelled to New Zealand specifically for that purpose and returned homealmost as soon as the LOTR tour was completed. For this group, their motivation fortravel was to experience New Zealand as Middle-Earth fuelled by their passionateinterest in the book and film trilogy.

Expectations and Experiences

For the majority of tourists on all three tours, their expectations of the landscapes weremet or exceeded and they left satisfied with their experiences; and this was particularlythe case for the multi-day tour participants. Figure 2 summarizes the factors identifiedby respondents for having their expectations exceeded, met or not met; as illustrated


Figure 2. Reasons for expectation fulfilment/disappointment.

by the following indicative quotes. Respondents’ expectations were exceeded becauseof low expectations, the beauty of the landscape, and the film set experience. First,some had initial low expectations of the natural landscapes’ similarities with the filmportrayal or the tour general and were pleased when there was more evidence ofthe films sets remaining than they expected, particularly at Hobbiton, with the partialhobbit holes and the party tree: ‘I was able to see the inside of the holes’ (Rings ScenicTours, female, 16–20 years, NZ). Secondly, the natural landscapes were comparableto those shown in the films or imagined by the tourists themselves: ‘I recognised mostof them immediately and even taking film limitations into account, they were as theyappeared on screen’ (Safari of the Rings, female, 45–49 years, UK). And, thirdly,many tourists spoke about the overall moving and informative experience of being inthe real/ imagined landscapes of Middle-Earth: ‘There is something magical abouttouching the same rocks, feeling the wind. Grounding experience’ (Red Carpet Tours,female, 40–44 years, USA).

Rather than being exceeded, some tourists’ expectations were broadly met. Thiswas attributed to research done prior to the tour which gave them informed knowledgeof how the landscape would look; the comparability of the natural/’real’ landscapewith the imaginary landscape portrayed in the films; or the fact that tourists did notexpect to have the natural landscapes appear as in the films. Where expectations were

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not met, tourists had expected more to be left of the former film sets or felt that thelandscapes did not match the grandeur of those featured in the films (which were oftendigitally enhanced); for example: ‘There’s no evidence of the film or Middle-Earth.The sets added to the landscape to create the illusion of Middle-Earth’ (Safari of theRings, male, 25–29 years, Australia). Conversely, other respondents did not have theirexpectations met even when there were film set remains: these tourists would havepreferred to have a solely natural landscape experience.

Experience and Satisfaction

Not surprisingly given the above, the majority of tourists were satisfied with theirfilm tourism experience; the factors contributing to a satisfying tour experience aresummarized in Figure 3. Respondents identified three main factors contributing tosatisfaction. First, an appreciation of New Zealanders, particularly the guides and touroperators, for their hospitality, knowledge and behind-the-scenes insight: ‘The tourguides were fantastic. They brought a brilliant blend of knowledge and enthusiasm’(Rings Scenic Tours, female, 35–39 years, UK). Secondly, an appreciation of thenatural landscapes of New Zealand: ‘Great way to see NZ especially because somesights were “off the beaten paths” taken by tourists’ (Red Carpet Tours, male, 30–34years, USA). And, thirdly, a delight at being immersed in Middle-Earth: ‘I’ve been toHobbiton; that makes me satisfied’ (Rings Scenic Tours, male, under 16 years, HongKong).

Respondents with a low satisfaction level named as the main reason the poorcondition of the film set remains (particularly in the case of the former Hobbiton filmset on the Rings Scenic Tours) or just the lack of film set remains, as in the case ofthe Safari of the Rings tours. This confirms research by Aitken and Zonn (1994) thatfilm tourists judge the ’real’ landscapes against the film landscapes. In contrast, itseems that the closer the ’real’ landscapes approximate the hyper-real landscapes ofthe films, the more expectations are met or exceeded and the greater the satisfactionof the tourists with their tour experience. This, in turn, verifies Mitchell’s (1998)model and demonstrates that most film tourists want the absolute unreality of the filmlandscapes offered as ’real’ presence (Eco 1986), through the tangibility of film setsand other forms of interpretation.

Figure 3. Reasons for tour satisfaction.


Closely associated with this point, it seems that the degree of satisfaction whenvisiting a former film set in an organized tour depends highly on the ability of theguides to interpret the landscapes for tourists. This might include explaining thelocations and angles of the film shots, or providing behind-the-scenes’ insights whichfurther enhance tourists’ reading of the ‘real’ landscapes. The better these explanationsand the re-awakening of memories of the films, the higher the satisfaction of filmtourists, and the greater their desire to watch the films again to see them all froma new perspective. As such, tour guides, like the window of the tour buses studiedby Schofield (1996), are critically important mediators of film landscapes and touristexperience and satisfaction.

Perhaps, rather surprisingly, previous viewing of the films appeared to be a lessimportant variable than the quality of the guides in influencing tourists’ experiencesand there appeared to be no significant relationship between the number of timesa tourist had seen LOTR films and their level of satisfaction. While fans who haveseen the films numerous times may have higher expectations of their tour experiencethan others who have seen the films only once; the former are often more preparedto suspend belief and read beyond the ‘real’ New Zealand landscapes to ‘see’ or‘feel’ Middle-Earth from the perspectives of the films’ characters. These tourists aremore likely to form an interpretative community through their willingness to re-readcharacters and re-enact action from the films (Aden et al. 1995) and these actionscontribute to what makes their experience ‘authentic’ and enhances their satisfactionwith the tour as a whole. For example, one 15-year-old British boy on a tour with hisfather dreamt of standing on the steps of the Golden Hall of Edoras and seeing thelandscape that Éowyn saw in the second film. The Hall was a set and is no longerthere but he ignored the tour operator’s warning about the cold and deep streamscrossing the path to get to the precise location and set out to fulfil his vision. Ittook him 2.5 hours. When he came back ’he was absolutely blown away that he hadaccomplished his dream. He stood where the steps [in the film] were and he sawwhat she [Éowyn] saw’ (Cain, pers. comm. 2003). Back in the UK, reportedly, fatherand son watched the video taken by the father of his son’s journey on an ‘eight footprojector screen on the wall of their lounge’ and relived the feeling of actually beingthere. Elsewhere at the former film set of Hobbiton, other tourists enjoyed dressingas hobbits and dancing under the party tree as a means of enhancing the touristexperience.

Conclusions

When employing Riley and Van Doren’s (1992: 269) framework for the three qualitiesa film should possess to induce tourism: ‘uniqueness, status or timely significance’,it is clear that the LOTR trilogy has the potential to generate tourism for many yearsto come.

60 D. Carl et al.

Through the films of LOTR New Zealand’s cultural landscape was transformedinto the mythical world of Middle-Earth by imposing layers of meaning to create thecultural landscapes of Middle-Earth. The result is that the landscape portrayal in thefilms does not provide many hints of the real cultural landscapes of New Zealand.

LOTR films are landscape dominated and the films’ promotion strongly emphasizesNew Zealand as the film location. This, and the associated tourism marketing andproduct development, make it easy for film tourists to trace the locations wherefilming took place; however, not all tourists may experience the landscapes of whichthey came in search. The heavy use of post-production digital modifications within thefilms, combined with ’missing’ film sets in situ, make it challenging for many touriststo perceive a ’realistic’ sense of place. The ’real’ landscapes provide few features ofthe hyper-real landscapes in the films and this impacts on film tourists’ experience ofthe former film sites when ‘the real is judged against the staged’ (Aitken and Zonn1994: 7). Organized film location tours, therefore, rely heavily on guides and the useof interpretative tools, such as illustrations from the films, to make it easier for touriststo recognize the real New Zealand landscapes used in the films. In addition, guidesintegrate stories about the challenges of filmmaking or behind-the-scenes’ anecdotes,which served to enhance the fascination and ’authenticity’ of the experience.

In some cases, part of the film tourists’ experience/pilgrimage is to step into the’real’ landscapes, to re-enact scenes from the hyper-real landscapes of the films,whether it be to stand on top of the hill where Edoras was filmed and act like Éowynor to dance like the hobbits under the party tree in Hobbiton. Clearly, tourists blur thedistinction between real and hyper-real through their motivation to re-perform actionof the films and this leads to high levels of satisfaction associated with the perceptionthat they have achieved an ’authentic’ experience, in this case of ’Middle-Earth’.Such behaviour confirms Aden et al.’s (1995) findings elsewhere on the formationof interpretative communities in film tourism and has important implications forunderstanding and managing tourists’ expectations.

Where tourists’ expectations were not met, it seemed that the ’real’ landscapesdid not resemble closely enough their film counterparts, or did not provide enoughevidence of filming having taken place there. The findings of this study seem to confirmMitchell’s (1998) a-priori model by showing that the more perfect the representationof hyper reality in the tours, the higher the satisfaction and thus the more enhancedthe tourist experience. This was particularly the case in the multi-day New Zealand asMiddle-Earth experience with Red Carpet Tours. However, this relationship does notseem to be related directly to how frequently tourists had watched the films beforeparticipating in the tours, but may be influenced by other factors such as the presenceof interpretative material, guides and other amenities.

By better understanding how film tourists experience these cultural landscapes,tourism operators and destination marketers can better meet expectations, therebyexpanding the beneficial effects of film tourism on destinations. In particular, thereis still a need for more information and support to ensure high quality interpretation


and guiding given the importance of these aspects in mediating the tourist experienceand informing resultant levels of satisfaction.

References

Aden, R. C., Rahoi, R. L. & Beck, C. S (1995) “Dreams are born on places like this”: The process ofinterpretive community formation at the Field of Dreams site, Communication Quarterly, 43(4), pp.368–403.

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Notes on Contributor

Daniela Carl is a Research Officer in the Centre for Tourism and Cultural Change,Leeds Metropolitan University, UK. Her research interests include cultural andtourism geography; film tourism; social and environmental impacts of tourism; andtourism planning and development.Sara Kindon is a Senior Lecturer in Human Geography and Development Studiesin the School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences, Victoria Universityof Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand. Her research interests include: Participatory,feminist and Kaupapa Maori research methodologies; critical perspectives in devel-opment; and young people, identity and place.Karen Smith is a Senior Lecturer in Tourism Management in Victoria ManagementSchool, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Her research interests in-clude film and literary tourism, tourism distribution channels, and the managementof volunteers at tourist sites and events.


Résumé: Comment les touristes ressentent les sites de tournage de film : la Nou-velle Zélande, berceau de ‘Middle Earth’On notait, il y a plus de dix ans, le manque d’intérêt des chercheurs pour le tourisme induit par lecinéma. Depuis, plusieurs études ont exploré ce phénomène et les bénéfices qui en découlent pources destinations, tant durant le tournage qu’après la distribution en salles. La trilogie du Seigneurdes Anneaux (LOTR dans le texte), par exemple, a fait connaı̂tre la Nouvelle Zélande à des voyageurspotentiels du monde entier. La Nouvelle Zélande, et des sites particuliers dans le pays, sont devenusdes icônes paysagères de la trilogie en se vendant comme le berceau de ‘Middle Earth’. Les lieux detournage, cependant, comme dans le cas de nombreux autres sites semblables, sont un mélange delieux réels, de décors et de mises au point numériques. Les touristes ne retrouveront pas toujoursles paysages des films. Cet article présente les résultats d’une recherche empirique effectuée auprèsde trois opérateurs de tourisme qui vendent des produits dont les thèmes relèvent du LOTR. Ona soumis des questionnaires aux visiteurs/visiteuses pour explorer leurs motivations, leurs attenteset leurs expériences des paysages liés au tournage du LOTR. Les résultats suggèrent que plus lareprésentation de l’hyper réalité est parfaite lors des tours plus la satisfaction est élevée et plusl’expérience des touristes est rehaussée. Certains touristes de cinéma, de plus, souhaitent pénétrerces paysages dans lesquels ils/elles cherchent à rejouer certaines scènes pour s’immerger dans le film.Si les opérateurs de tours et les promoteurs de destinations comprennent mieux comment les touristesvivent ces paysages culturels, ils/elles seront mieux à même de fournir l’expérience que recherchentleurs client(e)s et donc d’accroı̂tre les bénéfices du tourisme de cinéma dans ces destinations.

Mots-clés: Tourisme de cinéma, expérience des touristes, icônes paysagères, Le Seigneur des Anneaux(LOTR), Nouvelle Zélande

Zusammenfassung: Touristenerfahrungen an Filmsets: Neuseeland als ‘Mittel-erde’Riley bemängelte bereits vor mehr als einem Jahrzehnt die fehlende wissenschaftliche Forschungauf dem Gebiet des Filmtourismus. Seither haben sich eine Reihe von Studien mit dem Phänomenund den Auswirkungen auf die portraitierte Destination während der Dreharbeiten und nach derAusstrahlung beschäftigt. Ein Beispiel für Filmtourismus ist die Filmtrilogie Herr der Ringe, welcheNeuseeland einer weltweiten Öffentlichkeit potentieller Besucher vorgestellt hat. Durch die Ver-marktung Neuseelands und seiner Regionen als Sinnbild für Mittelerde erhielten die portraitiertenLandschaften ikonischen Status. Problematisch im Zusammenhang mit im Film porträtierten Land-schaften, ist die Vermischung von realen Orten, künstlichen Filmsets und digitaler Nachbearbeitung.Dies erschwert dem Filmtouristen, die zuvor im Kino erlebten Landschaften erneut in der Realität zuerleben. Der vorliegende Artikel erörtert die Ergebnisse empirischer Feldforschung am Beispiel vondrei Tourismusunternehmen, welche Produkte mit dem Schwerpunkt Heer der Ringe anbieten. DieFeldforschung umfasste Fragebögen und Interviews mit Teilnehmern dieser Herr der Ringe Touren.Intention der Untersuchung war es, die Motivationen sowie die Erwartungshaltungen der Filmtouris-ten herauszuarbeiten und das individuelle Erleben der in den Filmen des Herr der Ringe porträtiertenLandschaften zu beleuchten. Die Ergebnisse der Forschungsstudie legen folgenden Schluss nahe: jebesser die Hyperrealität der Filme in den Touren kopiert wird umso höher ist die Zufriedenheit undumso positiver das Gesamterlebnis der Filmtouristen. Hinzu kommt, dass einige Filmtouristen sichzum Ziel machen, in das Filmset einzusteigen und Szenen der Filme nachzuspielen, um sich somit dieIllusion der realen Partizipation zu erschaffen. Wenn wir besser verstehen, wie Filmtouristen kul-turelle Landschaften erleben, können Destinationsmanager und Tourismusunternehmen Produkteund Erlebnisse schaffen, die den Vorstellungen und Bedürfnissen von Filmtouristen entsprechenund somit die positiven Effekte des Filmtourismus verstärken.

Stichwörter: Filmtourismus: Touristische Erfahrung, Ikonen-Landschaften, Herr der Ringe (LOTR),Neuseeland

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