Film-Induced Tourism as a Vehicle For Destination Marketing: Is it Worth the Efforts?

ABSTRACT This study examined the impact of a film on the featured destination's image and travel intentions through comparing the results of a one-group pretest-posttest quasi-experiment. Then, the effect of destination attributes and overall image on travel intentions is examined simultaneously through path analysis. The results indicate that the role of the overall image as a mediating variable is not significant as respondents relied more on specific destination image attributes on their intention to visit. This was even more prominent after the viewing of the film. The overall image had the strongest direct effect on visit interest in future for both pretest and posttest. Keywords: Film-induced tourismdestination imageimage attributesoverall imagetravel intentionspath analysis