Authors: Sofia Gkarane, Chris Vassiliadis

Title: Impact of Film Tourism on a Destination: The Case of Greece

Abstract

Tourism has become a leading economic sector contributing to 6% of world total exports and could highly contribute to the recovery of the Greek economy which, currently, is in deep crisis.

Many destination marketing organizations have realized the role of image in tourism promotion and in order to be competitive, they emphasize on tourism of special interest such as film tourism since the latter turns to be a growing phenomenon worldwide.

This paper reviews film tourism and the impacts of films on destinations where they were shot. Through the method of content analysis on film tourism in Greece, it also discusses the case of this country as a film location and provides some suggestions for developing film tourism in it.