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The objective of this study was to measure the immediate impacts of a fi lm on the perceptions of viewers from different countries. The fi lm chosen for this experiment was the Motorcycle Diaries in which South America was featured prominently in the fi lm. Using established scales from the tourism and marketing literature, viewers from the USA, Canada and Spain were surveyed before and after seeing the fi lm, and results showed that the fi lm did change the viewers' perceptions of South America. After watching the fi lm, a large percentage of the respondents expressed a desire to visit the countries seen in the fi lm, with Canadians showing a signifi cantly higher desire to visit South America than the US and Spanish participants. Those who were motivated to travel by the fi lm were especially infl uenced by the scenery, landscape and the cultural attractions of the destination as depicted in the movie. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Received 18 February 2010; Revised 15 August 2010; Accepted 25 August 2010 Keywords: fi lm tourism; destination image; South America; tourism marketing. INTRODUCTIONThe impact of fi lms on people's image formation has been widely acknowledged in the literature (Butler, 1990;Riley and van Doren, 1992;Gartner, 1993;Schofi eld, 1996;Iwashita, 2003;Kim and Richardson, 2003). Films are not generally produced with the intent to attract tourists to a destination, but tend to infl uence viewers indirectly as a background part of the movie's message (Butler, 1990). This is because they can present millions of viewers with substantial information about a destination, create a fi rst-time image or alter an existing image in a relatively short period of time (Hahm et al., 2008). For a destination, the publicity generated by a major motion picture and by the high-profi le actors can be tremendous (Beeton, 2005). Researchers have already asserted that fi lms are more likely to reach wider audiences with less investment than specifi cally targeted tourism advertisements and promotion (Dore and Crouch, 2003). As a result, fi lm-induced tourism or fi lm tourism as it is referred to in this paper, can be an effective marketing tool for destinations that lack fi nancial backing for strong advertising campaigns, especially at a time of economic downturn.But despite the growing awareness of the relationship between fi lm and tourism, as well as the anecdotal application of fi lm tourism in destination marketing, the impacts of fi lm tourism still appear to be under-appreciated. Though the effects of fi lm tourism can be long lasting and have signifi cant long-term economic and social effects, many tourism organizations have been slow to tap the potential Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Tourism Res. 13, 177-190 (2011) and Ritchie, 2006). Academic research on fi lm tourism has been around since the early 1990s, but the popularity and extensiveness of research in this area has increased in recent years (Hahm et al., 2008), with most studies examining the increase ...

This study examines the destination image of South America among young North American students through the lens of a historic movie with controversial content. The results of the study reveal that South America is perceived as an affordable ecotourism destination, with emphasis on the nature, cultural and heritage attributes of the region. It is also perceived as less developed, secured and westernized than their home environment. It is found that watching the movie has not dramatically changed the destination image of South America, but rather strengthened previous perceptions. Nevertheless, an increasing desire to visit South America is evidenced among the participants. The findings of the study call for more critical and cautious analysis of the phenomenon of film tourism. In addition, it also suggests that with certain conditions even films with controversial plot may contribute to tourism industry of a destination.

Making the right impression is paramount to succeed in today’s very competitive market, where photographs have acquired a prominent role in doing so. The evaluation and analysis of destination image have been tackled mainly from the perspective of the tourists’ perceptions. However, the projected image of destinations has received limited attention in the literature and the topic has not yet been successfully operationalized. Moreover, existing literature on the projected image on photographs (PIP) is scattered and lacking of an integral approach. Thus, the aim of this article is to fill this gap by carrying a comprehensive literature review on the destination’s PIP, covering information sources analyzed, destinations included, number of pictures, time framework, methodology, and specially categorization (people, activities represented, and tourism context) and specific attributes used. As a result, this article provides researchers with a reference guide to understand the current situation of the research on this topic, context, methods, and focus of previous studies. Finally, it identifies trends and reflections on future research.