Dorcas Gan investigates the opportunities and challenges arising from promoting film tourism in Southeast Asia.
Netflix’s travelogue “A Tourist’s Guide to Love” (ATGTL), which explores cities such as Ha Giang, Hanoi and Da Nang, takes viewers through Vietnam’s beautiful landscapes as protagonists Amanda and Sinh meet and find love. The series, supported by Vietnam’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, represents a new initiative in the region to encourage film tourism.
The region has seen a significant drop in tourist numbers since the COVID-19 pandemic. According to Statista, 143.61 million tourists visited Southeast Asia in 2019 before the pandemic, but this number decreased to 26.16 million and 2.95 million in 2020 and 2021, respectively. Although recovery has been steady over the past year, reaching 46.5 million visitors in the first half of 2023, there is still a long way to go for ASEAN tourism recovery. Chinese tourists, who accounted for the majority of ASEAN tourism before COVID-19, have not fully returned and are unlikely to recover to previous levels, especially as China’s economic growth has slowed. It is expected to last until 2025.
Given the importance of tourism to local economies and the slow return of tourists, some local governments have embarked on efforts to accelerate recovery. This includes movie tourism. This includes special arrangements to persuade individuals and foreign film production companies to film productions in their country. These deals typically include increased subsidies for international media companies that showcase a particular country’s landscape, culture, and heritage. For example, Thailand will double the cap on tax refunds for entertainment companies’ production costs in March 2023, and Singapore announced a S$10 million fund to support eligible film projects in April.
There are various reasons why this type of tourism is attractive to governments. The most obvious is the immediate boost to tourism and job creation for the local economy. Fieldwork conducted by academics in 2014 to examine how local residents viewed the impact of film tourism included interviews with local residents in Ubud, Bali, Indonesia, for example, and interviews with local residents in Ubud, Bali, Indonesia. He said the filming of “Eat, Pray” is perceived to have boosted the local economy (and temporarily). , Love” (EPL, 2010). Local residents gained employment in supporting roles and film production help, while coffee shops sponsored film crews along with domestic tourists who came to Ubud to see Hollywood productions and meet celebrities like Julia. Sales soared as a result. Roberts.
Singapore cityscape at dusk overlooking Marina Bay Sands. (Photo courtesy of MOLPIX, via Shutterstock)
In the medium term, featuring local locations in films could act as promotion of local and regional heritage. This has the potential to stimulate movie tourism and thereby create a steady tourism flow that can bridge the gap between seasonal tourism. The premiere of Kevin Kwan’s “Crazy Rich Asians” (2018) was set primarily in Singapore, with an international cast, and scenes from around the city, including Orchard Road, Marina Bay Sands, and Raffles Hotel. Some of the country’s iconic places and landmarks were featured. Several government agencies supported the film’s production and post-production. Under the jurisdiction of the Singapore Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), the Singapore Film Commission (SFC) has awarded the film a production grant, and the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) has partnered with Warner Bros. to help promote the film. Did.
Searches for Singapore on travel sites such as Kayak and Orbitz are said to have skyrocketed after the film was released. STB said the film helped raise “destination awareness” in the city-state. As a result, in 2018, Singapore’s hotel industry recorded its highest occupancy rate in a decade, thanks in part to popular movies. Similarly, the Vietnam National Tourism Administration (VNAT) said that his popular ATGTL series showcased Vietnam’s breathtaking landscapes and vibrant culture and had a great impact on attracting tourists to visit Vietnam. I emphasized that I am giving.
Against this background, it is not surprising that some countries offer additional incentives to projects that specifically promote their national culture and landscape. Thailand will offer additional rebates for films that use “second-rate” locations, while Malaysia will offer Films in Malaysia through an additional 5% cash rebate for films that showcase local traditions and culture in 2022.・Incentive (FIMI) was increased. Similarly, the Philippines has extended an additional 5% rebate for films depicting the country’s cultural identity in 2023.
However, while film tourism can be economically viable, it can also be an environmental and social hazard. Film companies can make changes to filming locations in ways that upset the ecological balance, while crowds brought on by a film’s popularity can cause environmental degradation. This is exemplified by the example of Koh Phi Phi in Thailand, one of the main filming locations for Alex Garland’s The Beach (2000), starring American movie star Leonardo DiCaprio. Environmentalists say the film’s production engaged in “environmental restructuring” in which the film crew replaced native plants with palm trees to enhance the “tropical” aesthetic of the beach, thereby destroying the local ecosystem. argued, and became embroiled in controversy.
This is a photo of Phi Phi Island in Thailand. (Photo by Dmitry Lukulenko, via Shutterstock)
Further fueling the controversy was the claim that production company 20th Century Fox had been given permission by the Royal Forestry Department of Thailand to replace the plants after paying a “permanent damage deposit” totaling 4 million and 5 million baht. . Guaranteed tourism promotion worth 300 million baht. The film certainly propelled Koh Phi Phi as an international tourist hotspot in the pre-social media era, leading to an unbridled increase in visitors and subsequent devastation of the island’s coral reefs and wildlife.
The surge in tourism due to the popularity of movies, television, and streaming series can also cause a variety of social problems. For example, in academic Fay Taylor’s long-term fieldwork in the Phi Phi Islands from 2005 to 2015, interviews with local residents revealed that the development of a waste management system specifically for tourism purposes was dysfunctional; It has become clear that unpleasant odors may be generated and have a negative impact on local residents. Bali has become popular as a spiritual getaway since Ubud was featured in his EPL. As a result, the influx of tourists caused congestion on expressways and in the region, disrupting the daily lives of local residents, partly because the infrastructure was inadequate to deal with these issues.
Indeed, since then, governments in Southeast Asia have addressed these specific issues and promoted several models of sustainable tourism. Thai authorities closed Phi Phi Island in 2018 to facilitate environmental recovery. Koh Phi Phi reopened to the public in 2022 after the marine environment has significantly recovered. After reopening in 2022, limits on daily visitors to beaches within defined hours will be in place, along with guidelines on areas of beaches accessible to tourists, in order to maintain the fragile ecological balance. I am.
Recently, the governments of Indonesia and Thailand responded to mass tourism by introducing tourism taxes. From February 2024, visitors to Bali will have to pay an additional $10 tax, which will go toward solving the island’s notorious traffic congestion and waste disposal problems. A similar tax increase proposal was passed by Thailand’s parliament, but it has not yet been implemented due to concerns about its negative impact on Thailand’s economy.
While these efforts are effective in ameliorating the negative after-effects of movie tourism, more preventive solutions also exist. Government agencies will likely implement enforceable deterrents alongside attractive film tourism packages to ensure that film companies comply with environmental laws and are penalized for violating such agreements. could be set up.
Tourism authorities in the region could also consider implementing preventive plans to prevent potential overtourism in important film locations with environmental and social considerations. This includes limiting the number of visitors per day to reduce congestion and damage, demarcating areas that restrict access and rotating access points, and infrastructure that facilitates the sharing of resources such as public transport. Practical measures such as providing services are required.
The above suggestions may indeed completely alleviate the boom effect of movie tourism in the short term. Local governments urgently need to rethink how to sustainably promote film tourism before audiences return in earnest. Ultimately, approaches that balance immediate economic benefits with the health of the environmental and social fabric of place communities are likely to be more beneficial in the long run.
Editor’s note:
ASEANFocus+ articles are timely and important insight articles published by the ASEAN Research Center.
