4.1. From Dracula to Hotel Transylvania: Dracula Tourism in Transylvania, Romania
Transylvania is a region situated in the centre of Romania, currently covering nine counties: Alba, Bistriţa-Năsăud, Braşov, Cluj, Covasna, Harghita, Hunedoara, Mureş and Sibiu. It is dominated by the Carpathian mountain range with its pristine forests and it has an international fame due to vampires, castles and wolves [
44]. Transylvania has a huge tourism potential and attracts almost a third of the total number of visitors to Romania. Tourist arrivals have been growing in Transylvania in the last ten years and the most popular Transylvanian counties for visitors in 2019 are Braşov, Cluj and Mureş (see
Table 1) [
45].
Transilvania (often spelled as
Transylvania in English literature) is well-known and branded in both contemporary literature/film studies and tourism studies with its genuine association with Dracula—a fictional character that has been rooted in the Western popular culture for over a century. Although the origins and the subsequent demand for Dracula tourism are rooted in Western popular culture, Hovi claimed: “Dracula tourism in Romania is not just Western fiction and fantasy projected onto Romania. Dracula tourism in Romania is a much more versatile form of cultural tourism that combines fiction, tradition, history and culture. Dracula tourism can in fact be seen as a way to promote Romanian heritage through Western popular fiction” [
46] (p. 15). As a historical figure in the 15th century Wallachia (a historical region in Southern Romania), Vlad the Impaler has been involuntarily attached to the fictional vampire Count Dracula in Western culture ever since Bram Stoker’s novel
Dracula was published in 1897, while the factual connection between the two characters “is wafer thin and vague at best” [
46] (pp. 61–62), “yet they are persistent and strong” [
47] (p. 84). Miller argued that Bram Stoker had no first-hand experience of the Transylvania region and only depended on others’ recounted information to design vampire Dracula’s homeland Transylvania in his novel
Dracula [
48]. Light stated that since then more than 200 films about Count Dracula had been made and hundreds more movies that featured vampires as their subject [
40] (p. 750). He further claimed: “…since many more people had encountered Stoker’s vampire through the medium of film, the Dracula appeal is also an early example of movie-induced tourism” [
12] (p. 753). The first full Romanian translation of the novel
Dracula was published in November 1990, even though Romania had seen an explosion of Western tourists in search of Dracula and vampires during the 1970s [
49]. Candrea et al. noted that although many tour agencies utilised Bram Stoker’s Dracula in many ways to offer Dracula tourism, most visual elements adopted in Dracula tourism are “definitely movie-inspired” [
47] (p. 84). However, Banyai’s study showed that while the majority of Western tourists visit Bran, Romania in search for Count Dracula, most of them leave disappointed because the Bran Castle tour guides only focus on presenting the historical truth, rather than the fictional vampire [
50] (p. 20). Vlogs and social media came into the picture as vloggers and tourists shared their live experiences, trying to be catchy and authentic, when they combined myth with history, mixed information with emotions and feelings [
51].
As a matter of fact, after crowds of tourists from all over the world flock into the famous Bran Castle (see
Figure 1)—the so dubbed Dracula’s Castle in Transylvania, they can only find detailed introductions of the Transylvanian local culture and regional history, and some of the famous/infamous residents that once lived in the Castle, including a small section particularly for Vlad the Impaler. Surprisingly, if not disappointingly, there is hardly a single trace of the most anticipated vampire Count Dracula throughout the visual and textual displays inside the Castle.
Based on the researchers’ observation, most tourists who visit the Castle do not seem too bothered by the “huge” absence of the fictional cultural icon rooted in the Western myth. This is because they can still experience and imagine the various lives and stories of the real people who have resided in the Castle generation by generation, digesting the rich historical activities and local cultures radiated from those true narratives. Meanwhile, Light noted that for those visitors who would like to be immersed in the Dracula myth, “a thriving market in souvenirs with vampire and horror themes developed around Bran Castle” [
40] (p. 758).
Furthermore, the well-known, fictional Hotel Transylvania in reality is just a 3-star historical hotel (see
Figure 2) located in the city centre of Cluj-Napoca, which is regarded as the unofficial capital of the historical Transylvania region; however, from inside out, both the decoration and the architecture of Hotel Transilvania hardly make guests connect it to the
Hotel Transylvania movie franchise except for the hotel name itself. Because of its name, Hotel Transilvania was appointed as one of the official accommodation sites for the annual Transilvania International Film Festival (TIFF) for years. TIFF has become the most important film festival in Romania, promoting both Romanian culture through premiering a large number of domestic films and international cultures by screening up-to-date, award-winning foreign movies.
In line with the purpose of local/regional culture promotion, the main dishes served in Hotel Transilvania are mostly Romanian traditional meals including
Sarmale, Mămăligă, and
Mici, while the breakfast serves an international or continental buffet. The film festival tour is one of the branches under the film-induced tourism umbrella, its cultural value is very high and culture appeals for tourists are varying from year to year. In 2007, TIFF intentionally used the iconic character Count Dracula as its promotional inspiration along with a mascot resembling Count Orlok (see
Figure 3), who was a filmic variation of Count Dracula and originated from the 1922 classic silent film
Nosferatu directed by German filmmaker F.W. Murnau [
52].
The reason for why after six years from its foundation (2002), TIFF just decided to use the Count Dracula character to promote the festival may be as Light asserted, “Dracula tourism can be identified as a site of struggle between the West’s assertion of Romania as Other and the country’s efforts to define itself in its own way and on its own terms” [
40] (p. 761). In July 2002, the location of building a Dracula Park in Sighișoara—a historical city about 155 km away from Cluj-Napoca and its medieval citadel is included on the UNESCO World Heritage List—was quietly dropped. In 2005, the controversial Dracula Park project was finally abandoned [
40] (p. 759). This was a setback for the Romanian government’s first serious attempt to use the Dracula myth for its own tourism promotional purpose after decades of resistance, and then years of reluctance, to endorsing this Western visual trope enforced upon the country. This Dracula Park setback may give a plausible explanation why TIFF had not adopted Dracula imagery as its promotional design within the initial several years. However, this temporal setback did not hinder the Romanian government and scholars to continue evaluating the promotional value of both Dracula and Transilvania as alluring attractions for its national tourism strategy. In 2007, the Romanian Master Plan for the Development of National Tourism 2007–2026 mentioned Dracula as one of the country’s strengths as a tourist destination, together with Transylvania, in both the cultural section and the marketing and promotion section of the document as a Romanian tourism brand [
47]. The year of 2007 was exactly the TIFF first time adopted the character Count Orlok (a variation of Count Dracula) as its promotional emblem.
The official position of Romanian tourism is rather reluctant to use Dracula as a key ingredient in marketing both Romania and Transylvania as macro-destinations. A simple search through The Operational and Strategic Plan for Romania 2011–2015 provides the insight that Dracula is mentioned as an attribute of Transylvania and “Meeting with the Dracula” as a potential experience [
44]. This report quantitatively mentioned Dracula five times and Dracul (Vlad Dracul is a historical figure and the father of Vlad Tepes) two times, whereas
biserici (churches) was mentioned twenty-two times,
mănăstiri (monasteries) six times. As Romania is a country, in which the majority of its citizens declare themselves as Orthodox Christians and the Romanian Orthodox Churches have strong ties with Romanian politics, it can be easy to infer that Romanian official position to Dracula tourism is rather ambiguous.
The national government and local authorities, however, have responsibility to draw up strategic plans through specific public policies for the tourism sector [
53], so the difference between the projected image and the perceived image of Romania as a tourist destination can be seen as one of these strategies [
54]. This strategy is conspicuously effective when it comes to the reality that local leisure and hospitality businesses persistently and pervasively adopt Dracula or Dracula/Vlad related names to promote their commercial premises (see
Table 2,
Table 3,
Table 4 and
Table 5), in part contributing to the increasing rate of tourist visitation to Transylvania over the years [
55,
56].
In recent years, more and more scholars realised that Dracula tourists were a complex mix of multiple interest groups e.g., literary tourists, film tourists, as well as tourists interested in searching for the supernatural roots of Dracula myth or the historical figure of Vlad the Impaler [
40,
46,
47]. A map depicting places linked with both Stoker’s Dracula (red) and historical figure Vlad (blue) is presented in
Figure 4. Galați, the place mentioned in Stoker’s novel and where the return trip of the fictional Dracula to his castle started is not shown on the map as well as the Siret or Prut rivers (mentioned only as a river in the novel). Mediaș (Mediasch in the novel) is shown with blue on the map as it is a place where real Vlad was imprisoned, but there are no wineries and Golden Mediasch white wine is mentioned in the novel.
Therefore, Candrea et al., 2016, suggested that, based on the confirmed popularity of the Dracula myth in Transylvania and its link with the country’s stereotyped, negative image, Romania should deal with the Dracula myth wisely and use it as a competitive advantage for promotional purposes strategically [
47] (p. 87–88). It is very important to coordinate different tourism activities and guiding visitors to improve their overall experience [
57]. The recently founded Dracula Film Festival (see
Figure 5) is one example of such a promotional strategy. During the opening ceremony for the Festival’s 2019 edition, the organiser screened a pre-recorded congratulatory video from Bram Stocker’s grand, grandson in the UK before the opening movie screening. A festival sub-programme—
Dracula Digital aims to attract young university students from all over the world to come to Brașov and team up with each other making short horror films with mobile phone cameras. In addition,
Dracula Digital provides a precious opportunity for the participating student filmmakers from around the world to experience the diverse Transylvania local cultures and history to achieve their own creative demands.
The increased diversification of Dracula tourists coming to Transylvania may be indebted to the long term persistent promotion of the region’s rich historical tradition and cultural heritage, and the constant, resourceful impact on the tourists’ renewed expectation and demand change towards the destination over the years. The Dracula myth as a promotional device can be seen to attract more and more tourists from around the globe to Transylvania. However, as tourists from more diverse backgrounds come to visit Transylvania, they maybe carry more diversified touristic interests other than the traditional Western travellers’ riveted interest in Dracula tourism. Even Western tourists visiting Transylvania nowadays have differing primary purposes due to Transylvania’s tremendous cultural tradition, historical heritage and its diverse natural and recreational resources such as the Carpathian Mountains scenery and the exceptional skiing resorts adorning the Mountains. The various marketing demands in Transylvania, as well as the multiple and specific demands for Dracula tourism, as Candrea et al. suggested, need more statistics as a distinct market segment registered for future meticulous studies about Transylvania tourism [
47]. Using the alluring tactic of the Dracula myth to promote the abundant cultural and historical resources in Transylvania appears to be an effective and sustainable film-induced tourism strategy for long term development.
Cultural mapping can be an important tool in making the intangible heritage visible as many local resources can bring benefits for the region by involving locals in cooperative actions [
32]. In this direction a niche tourism as a form of creative tourism could link the interests of tourists in the Dracula myth with traditions related with rituals of passage or other intangible heritage related to it.
4.2. From Negeri Laskar Pelangi to Eat Pray Love: Ubud in Bali, Indonesia
The studies of film-induced tourism in Indonesia have mainly focused on two cases so far: a Hollywood Romantic Drama
Eat Pray Love (2010) starring Julia Roberts and its contribution to the ensuing influx of soul-searching tourists from all over the world to Ubud in Bali following the film’s global hit; the other is an Indonesian domestic film
Negeri Laskar Pelangi (2008) and its boost of mainly Indonesian domestic tourists flooding into the film’s shooting location—Belitung island on the east coast of Sumatra (see
Figure 6).
For the latter case, Boronnia gave an elaborated discussion in her Master thesis titled “The Making of
Negeri Laskar Pelangi (the Land of Rainbow Troops) Film Tourism as Placemaking in Indonesia” [
58]. Furthermore, Imanjaya and Kusumawardhana reported in detail how this domestic box-office hit in Indonesia turned its shooting locations on Belitung island, where there was literally no tourism business on the island before the film’s release, into the most primary must-see destination on the island and then the host of some international events [
59] (pp. 13–15). In order to catch up with the attention from the eyes of the visitors who had just arrived the island, the municipal government of Belitung even renamed Tanjung Pandan harbour (one of the biggest harbours in the Bangka Belitung Province) Pelabuhan Laskar Pelangi (harbour of Laskar Pelangi), which precisely followed the title of the successful film [
59] (p. 14). After a tour of a special package of
Negeri Laskar Pelangi filming locations was launched online, thousands of local and international tourists flocked into Belitung island to join the package tour, so that the local tour operator decided to bring the popular product to an overseas tourism exhibition, in order to promote it to more international tourists in 2013 [
59] (p. 21). Therefore, the
Negeri Laskar Pelangi (2008) film tour is a successful exemplar for an Indonesian film attracting primarily domestic film tourists to visit a once little-known island destination. Tourism has become one of the three main priorities that are of particular concern for the Bangka Belitung provincial government to implement in the Regional Development Program 2017–2022 [
60] (p. 147). “Efforts to develop the tourism sector in the Bangka Belitung Islands are progressing as seen from the increasing number of tourism facilities, transportation, communication and the increasing number of tourists” [
60] (p. 148), especially demonstrated by the increasing number of tourists to the Belitung Island (see
Figure 7).
It is the phenomenon of a sudden influx of an array of niche, special interest tourists to Ubud in Bali following the release of the Hollywood movie
Eat Pray Love (2010) that puts one of its main production locations, an already famous tourism destination—Bali under the international spotlight again [
61,
62,
63]. Our analysis will be focused on the case of
Eat Pray Love (
EPL, see
Figure 8), which induced a mainly international tourist boom to the Ubud district in Bali, Indonesia, in order to compare with other two destinations, namely Transylvania in Romania and Penang in Malaysia. Dubbed as the “Island of Gods and Goddesses”, Bali is the most popular tourism destination in Indonesia that attracts millions of international tourists from the globe every year due to its beautiful sceneries and beaches as well as its strong and rich Hindu culture and religious tradition. Hitchcock wrote: “Besides beach-based activities, culture was also seen as a major tourism product building upon Bali’s Hindu heritage of temples, dance, and handicrafts” [
64]. Ubud, a large village in the centre of the island, has become Bali’s cultural and dance “capital”, boosting local pride in local Hindu culture, and is used to promote cultural tourism. As
EPL’s main filming locations, Ubud’s status of Bali’s cultural and dance “capital” had been long established before the film was released in 2010. As such, both Ubud and the Bali Island have very competitive touristic resources based on its cultural richness and artistic convention. A map of the Ubud district in Bali is presented in
Figure 9.
Locals enjoy sharing their everyday life with tourists and appreciate that “guests come here to learn about our tradition and our culture” [
65]. Using Kim and Wicks’ tourism cluster development model [
66], Chin et al. [
67] findings substantiated the validity of Porter’s National Diamond Model [
68] applied to Bali, where the four conditions (core resources, demand conditions, complementary conditions, and destination management) have proven to be important factors for destination competitiveness. Bali was regarded as successful as the four factor conditions were an added advantage in its global tourism competitiveness [
67].
In fact,
EPL’s global box-office success in 2010 only resulted in the influx of a niche, special interest group of tourists to Ubud in Bali, but the effect lasted for years. “Since then, both local and international tourism businesses have attempted to capitalise on the significance and popularity of the new
EPL tourism patterns and trends by developing and offering a variety of tour and accommodation packages tailored to include the main
EPL experiences portrayed in the film” [
69]. Park further observed that women travelling, either alone or with friends, were encountered more often in Ubud than other parts of Bali, and many of them were looking for the local markets and villa where Julia Roberts’ character had visited and lived in the film [
69] (p. 112). As boasted on Indonesia’s official tourism website: “Not even Italy or India could give her the peace she longed for…And she found it in Bali, island of gods and goddesses” [
61]. Then the website offers a tour package included a chain of sites to visit. “Tourists’ experiences of Ubud in Bali have been evolving from conventional cultural tourism to more complex or indeed hybrid type of cultural experiences” [
69].
Moreover, Imanjaya and Kusumawardhana noted: “Interestingly, the tour package underlines Bali as a spiritual tourist destination [
59]. For example, STA Travel put a tagline on its website with the sentence: “Embrace romance in paradise with an experience in Bali taken straight from the movie Eat Pray Love.” followed by daily itinerary with no direct relation with the movie or the novel”. Promoting Ubud and Bali “as a spiritual tourist destination” is a tangible and tactical strategy, because it is derived and has benefited from the long history of Bali’s Hindu religious and cultural tradition and Ubud as the cultural and dance “capital” in Bali. Although, this promoted spiritual tourist destination is quite remote from the romanticised, fictitious Ubud featured in the film
EPL, hence there is a disparity between the expectation of the
EPL tourists, who are particularly interested in experiencing what Julia Roberts’ character experienced in the film, and the itinerary of the tour package for sighting a real Ubud, the strategy may pay off in the long term. Not only does this strategy rely on exploiting the rich cultural resources and the historical heritage of Bali, thereby being sustainable for the destination’s long term development, it is also effective to prompt local tour operators to explore more innovative products revolving around the local cultural tradition to satisfy tourists’ more and more diversified demands (see
Figure 10). Here, the Indonesian official tourism website’s strategy that utilises the romanticised, imaginary Ubud destination represented in the film
EPL to consolidate Bali’s tourism competitiveness based on its cultural distinction and abundance is similar to the Bran Castle’s promotion tactic—using Dracula the myth to promote Transylvania’s abundant historical and cultural traditions. Such a
use-it-for-my-purpose sort of strategy, again, accentuates the importance of co-operation between government policymakers/planners, DMOs, and local communities, boosting the most sustainable model for film-induced tourism development.
4.3. From Indochine to Crazy Rich Asians: George Town in Penang, Malaysia
Malaysia’s tourism development has been experiencing a fast growth and the rich blend of cultural and heritage tourism has contributed to attract tourists from around the globe. Cultural and heritage tourism in Malaysia has been promoted vigorously due to its difference in ethnicity present in Malaysia. This diversity in culture has emerged as a potential for alternative tourism and has brought a diversity in local knowledge with a blend of Malay, Chinese and Indian architectures, handicrafts, music and dance, which brand Malaysia as a colourful, integrated culture unison. With this ethnical and cultural diversity, Malaysia has become a popular spot for filming locations for an array of Hollywood blockbuster movies as well as regional and domestic films. Film companies, mostly from Western countries, more often shoot a scene in Malaysia to simulate a place in another country in their films. Such a production modal could trace back to the Oscar-winning French film
Indochine (1992). The most recent example is the 2018 Hollywood hit
Crazy Rich Asians; a large number of scenes in it were filmed in Malaysia such as the Kuala Lumpur Carcosa Sri Negara, which was used as an exterior shot for the Young family home in Singapore; Langkawi Island was used as a backdrop for the bachelor party scene, while Cheong Fatt Tze mansion in George Town, Penang was filmed for an iconic courtyard mahjong scene, which brings out the blended culture of Southeast Asia [
70].
A number of filmmakers from Hollywood and other countries have chosen to shoot in Penang, a small island located at the Malacca Strait, off the north-western coast of Peninsular Malaysia, due to the rare distinction of George Town, its capital city being a UNESCO World Heritage Site (
Figure 11).
Penang portrays a blend of Malay, Chinese, Indian, Peranakan and European influences with endless murals, street art and the preservation of traditional and ancient architectures and buildings, all of them playing a combination of significant roles in creating a rich cultural atmosphere. Cheong Fatt Tze mansion (see
Figure 12) in George Town, inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage Site, not only recently appeared in
Crazy Rich Asians (2018), but was much earlier filmed in the Oscar-winning French film
Indochine (1992). However, George Town is not represented as its own destination identity but as an imaginary other place in both films—respectively, Cheong Fatt Tze mansion was used for the Young family home in Singapore in the former, while it was a set in the French Colonial Vietnam during the 1930s–1950s in the latter.
Likewise, in the Hollywood movie
Anna and the King (1999), Armenian Street in George Town was converted into the Nineteenth Century Siam (Thailand). In award-winning director Ang Lee’s film
Lust, Caution (2007), which set the storylines in Hong Kong and Shanghai during the 1930s and 1940s, the one-day shooting in George Town transformed Wisma Yeap Chor Ee into a shopping outlet in the film while the entire road—China Street Ghaut—was closed off [
71]. The Eastern & Oriental Hotel, Penang, which is also located in George Town, was the actual set filmed for the opening scene in
Crazy Rich Asians—the fictional Calthorpe Hotel in London, UK [
72].
Although there is no tangible evidence that film-induced tourism increases the number of tourist arrivals in George Town, Penang, it is difficult to ignore that filming in a certain location e.g., George Town gives exposure of Penang’s cultural and historical distinctions to unlimited audiences. The preferences of tourists have changed, and it is certainly insufficient in today’s competitive world to only offer physical infrastructure e.g., temples, beaches, museums or botanic gardens. Infrastructure and attractions are seen as merely a supportive role in appealing to tourists nowadays. Tourists are looking for different cultural experiences and traditions that they are eager to immerse themselves into—perhaps the culture values incorporated in the movies that are shot in Penang or the culture activities that they can experience or relate to in those movies.
In order to gather some evidence, 35 respondents with a mixture of different nationalities were queried for a brief interview during a fortnight of field work in George Town, Penang in December 2019 (see
Table 6). All of the 27 tourists expressed that they came to Penang to experience the interesting culture and lifestyle offered by its street arts, murals as well as the ancient architectures. Out of the 35 respondents, 18 of them were Western tourists coming from the USA, Canada, UK, Ireland, Sweden, Australia as well as New Zealand. When asked if any film was ever the factor that affected their decision to visit Penang, 14 of them answered “yes” to a certain extent. All of the respondents had seen films with storylines depicting Asian cultures, which had intrigued them all the while to travel here.
However, most of them said that the urge to visit a particular destination was not immediate or urgent but had a playing factor in influencing them. Respondents 16, 17 and 18 from New Zealand expressed that—
Movies beside the attractive actors and actresses help remind us the beauty of what other countries have… my son has watched the movie Crazy Rich Asians multiple times, almost every alternate day on repeat; so we have decided to bring him along to visit Singapore. My son then did his research and read that this movie was partly filmed in Penang; then we decided to also come to Penang and to my surprise, there is even more to see [here] than in the movie.
Respondent 7 replied: “It’s not watching one film per se which affected my decision to visit this beautiful country. It is also my self interest in the Asian culture and it undeniably helps that some movies have done such great work in portraying the Asian culture.” Although respondent 7 did not mention any title of the movie, his reply does echo the New Zealand respondents 16, 17 and 18′s emphatic tone on the Asian culture described in movies that they have watched for their travel decision-making.
In addition, 9 other respondents are from Southeast Asian countries, in other words they are more familiar with the blended local culture. When asked if film played an important role in attracting them to a destination, most of them said “yes”. Most of them expressed that the storyline of the movie is important as it brings the connection between the movie and real life. Respondents 19, 20 and 21 from Singapore said—
We went to a travel agent near our hotel and they marketed Armenian Street with all the movies being filmed there. I was instantly hooked and joined the tour as I am a big movie fanatic and a lot of local Chinese movies such as The Blue Mansion, Road to Dawn and The Red Kebaya are all shot in Penang. I feel that I was given the chance to walk and visit the place in the movie and transported back to the olden days.
Four of the respondents from Bangkok mentioned they visited Singapore and Penang because of the movie
Crazy Rich Asians (2018)—
I want to feel connected to the movie and experience the luxury life portrayed in the movie and experience the Chinese culture. The tour operator from Bangkok told us part of the programme was to go and visit the museum where the popular movie Crazy Rich Asians was being filmed. We were thrilled.
(Respondent 24)
The findings show that although the push factor of making tourists visit a particular destination is not immediate, film does help in influencing the decisions of tourists and the continuous reminders of scenes in business marketing strategy help attract tourists to the particular places shown in movies. Although the number of respondents is small and might not have an accurate representation of all the tourists who have visited Penang, it at least provides us a snapshot of how some tourists feel about the link between film and visiting a particular destination.
In addition, six local residents consisting of café owners, peddlers, shop owners and tour guides were also interviewed. All of them were really positive about tourism and expressed that their business has boomed due to the arrival of more tourists. Their quality of life has been hugely improved due to constant profitable businesses. However, most of the local residents have no knowledge on the link between film and tourism except the two tour guides. Moreover, two local movie producers in George Town, Penang were also interviewed. Both of them expressed that the movie scene in Penang has been improving throughout the years and the local government has started recognising the importance of film production and has been really supportive of local producers—
Local government has been encouraging local producers to produce more movies to promote Penang and also encourage us to collaborate with producers outside of Penang. Paperwork and bureaucracy has been lessened and the government has organised events and festivals to showcase local talents and hopefully exposed them to international market.
(Respondent 35)
Indeed, as is stressed in previous sections, to make a film-induced tourism strategy function effectively, it is crucial to build up the co-operative relationship and coordinated implementation between government policymakers/planners, creative talents, and destination managers/agents. The Penang government has decided to actively promote the local film festival to attract both domestic and international tourists in the hope of seeing more local filmmakers portray Penang in its original and authentic state in their films. For example, Penang hosted the second annual SeaShorts Film Festival, which was initiated by the Next New Wave organisation, in George Town in 2018 with the purpose of nurturing young and emerging filmmakers in Malaysia and beyond. This annual collaboration of short film programmes brought filmmakers from all the ten ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) member states, namely Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, Myanmar, Cambodia, Brunei, Malaysia, Philippines, Laos and Vietnam, facilitating the development of filmmaking in the Southeast Asian region as well as promoting Penang as a promising film-induced tourism destination.
With such constant exposure of George Town, Penang to producers and audiences from both Malaysia and outside Malaysia, not only have opportunities been engendered for local filmmakers to present a real imagery of the destination, but tons of tourism promotional opportunities for destination planners and managers have also arisen. The significant change in tourist demand and the importance of film induced tourism are obviously recognised by the Malaysian Inbound Tourism Association (MITA) and Malaysia Tourism Council (MTC), which are the two policymakers for the Malaysia tourism industry.
Unlike Transylvania and Ubud, whose original destination identity has been either distorted by a swath of film and television works related to the well-known Western myth or visually romanticised by a popular Hollywood blockbuster, the real identity of Penang featured in the popular Western movies is a complete displacement by other places that it has been portrayed as in those fictional narratives. For a long time, the majority of the Hollywood and other Western films shot in Penang have portrayed George Town, Penang as a fictional representation for an array of exotic destinations of Otherness, thereby removing the original identities of the destination itself. Although tourism planners have limited control over the content of a film and how the destination is being portrayed, it is reflected in our findings as positive in the case of George Town, Penang when it is used and seen as a successful tactical strategy to promote itself as a tourist destination. When asked about their views on fictional, imaginary representation of George Town, Penang in international movies, both of the local producers do not see it as a big issue: “We are working for exposure at this stage. Any publication or marketing, good or bad, is something [useful]. It gives limelight to Penang” (Respondent 34 and 35). To this day, George Town, Penang has continued to be portrayed as a destination with dynamic and blended cultures, regardless of being portrayed as fictional or realistic in the films. New emerging markets require new techniques of marketing dependent on their intrinsic resources and advantages; therefore, understanding the demand patterns of tourists is tremendously significant in order to ensure what promotional strategies are working, especially when adopting strategies of film-induced tourism to achieve sustainable marketing purposes.