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An Exploratory Study of Movie‐Induced Tourism:A Case of the Movie The Sound of Music and ItsLocations in Salzburg, AustriaHolly Hyunjung Im & Kaye ChonPublished online: 05 Nov 2010.

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An Exploratory Study of Movie-Induced Tourism: ACase of the Movie The Sound of Music and Its Locations

in Salzburg, Austria

Holly Hyunjung ImKaye Chon

ABSTRACT. Although it has been acknowledged that movies can induce people to travel to thesites where the movies were filmed, there is still little research related to behavioralcharacteristics of tourists who actually visit different movie sites. The purpose of this studywas to explore a relationship between a movie and its effect on the local tourism where themovie was filmed. In this study, specifically, the movie The Sound of Music was chosen toexamine the role that the movie played in attracting people to Salzburg, Austria that was used asa backdrop for the movie. The results of the survey have supported the phenomenon of movie-induced tourism by showing that the movie The Sound of Music influenced visitors in selectingthe film locations as their travel destination.

KEYWORDS. Movie-induced tourism, travel decisions, The Sound of Music

INTRODUCTION

Movies are creating tourist destinations(Heavens, 1995). There are several examplesto support this growing phenomenon ofmovie-induced tourism. After the movieThe Bridges of Madison County hit the box-office, Madison County in Iowa wasswamped with visitors who wished to tracethe romance between Clint Eastwood andMeryl Streep. The State of Iowa was anothersetting for the movie Field of Dreams, whichmade hundreds of people flock to thecornfields of Dyersville, Iowa, just to seethe farm with a baseball field appeared in the

movie (Keeble, 1999). The Oscar-winningmovie Dances with Wolves has also broughtthousands of tourists to the Black Hills areasof western South Dakota where KevinCostner’s camera focused on the region’snatural wonders (Burko, 1992).

Why do movies lure people to travel tofilm locations? Since Riley and Van Doren’s1992 study on movie-induced tourism,numerous articles have attempted to explainreasons for the popularity of film locationsas visitor destinations (i.e., Beeton, 2000;Butler, 1990; Busby and Klug, 2001; Kim,Cho, and Baik, 2006; Kim and Richardson,2003; Riley, Baker, and Van Doren, 1998;

Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, Vol. 24(2–3) 2008Available online at http://jttm.haworthpress.com

# 2008 by The Haworth Press. All rights reserved.doi: 10.1080/10548400802092866 229

Holly Hyunjung Im, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the College of Culture and Tourism of theDepartment of Hotel Management at Jeonju University (Hyoju-dong, 3Ga 1200, Jeonju, 560-759,South Korea) (E-mail: hollyim@jj.ac.kr).

Kaye Chon, Ph.D., is Chair Professor and Director in the School of Hotel and TourismManagement at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong) (E-mail: hmkchon@polyu.edu.hk).

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Tooke and Baker, 1996; Winsa 1999).Although these studies have explained var-ious aspects of the movie-induced tourism,there is still little research related to beha-vioral characteristics of tourists who actuallyvisit different movie sites (Busby and Klug,2001). The objective of this study was toprovide further evidence that film causestourists flock to the movie locations byconducting an on-site survey at one of thewell-known film sites. In this study, themovie The Sound of Music was chosen andthe on-site survey was administered targetingvisitors to Salzburg, Austria that was used asa backdrop for the movie, in order to explorethe role that the movie played in attractingpeople to Salzburg. Salzburg, Austria oncewas famous throughout the world as thebirthplace of Mozart and the site of animportant annual music festival (Harris,1984). However, with the appearance in1965 of the successful movie The Sound ofMusic, The Sound of Music Tour has beenthe most popular tour in Salzburg, Austria(Kim et al. 2006). The specific objectives ofthis study were as follows: 1) Who are themovie-induced tourists and what are theirtravel characteristics?; 2) Does the movie TheSound of Music influence in visitationdecisions?; 3) Does the frequency of watch-ing the movie affect the level of visitationdecisions?; 4) What is a relationship betweentravel characteristics and visitation decisionswith demographic groups?; and 5) What is avisitor’s degree of involvement with his orher visit to the movie sites?

LITERATURE REVIEW

Among the existing research publicationson movie tourism, benefits contributed byfilm tourism to a destination or tourists isone of the most popular research topics(Lam and Ap, 2006). The benefits generatedfrom film tourism are often measured by thenumber of visitors in a particular locationwhere the movie was filmed (Riley and VanDore, 1992; Riley et al., 1998; Macklin, 1999;Tooke and Baker, 1996; Winsa, 1999). For

example, Riley and Van Doren (1992) havegathered data for several movie locations inthe United States that had experienced asignificant increase in terms of number oftourists after those places were used as abackdrop in the motion picture films(movies). Among them, the movie CloseEncounters provided the most impressiveevidence of visitors increase. The dataprovided by Riley and Van Doren (1992)showed a great change in number of visitorsto, where the film’s major scenes were shot,after the release of the movie in 1977. Theincreases in visitor number associated withfilm and TV mini-series can be also found inEngland. Winsa (1999) stated that film andtelevision portrayals of London are esti-mated to encourage the arrival of nearlyone in five of the 13 million foreign touristswho visit the capital each year. Some spots,where movies have been made, havedoubled the number of visitors as a result(Macklin, 1999). Encouraged by this grow-ing popularity of movie-induced tourism,the British Tourist Authority (BTA) hascreated a Movie Map that shows thelocations for such films as Shakespeare inLove, Pride and Prejudice, The Full Monty,and Harry Potter.

At some locations, the impact of increasedtourism has created economic windfalls,while at others it has caused safety concernsand overcrowding. In most cases the resi-dents were not prepared for the influx ofpeople or for their unceasing curiosity (Rileyet al., 1998). In case of Madison County,Iowa, there were few commercial accommo-dations and little infrastructure to handletourists because of its remote location.Beeton (2000) argued that an influx ofvisitors is not always welcome or advanta-geous, with many country towns unsuited tosupporting the concomitant tourism growthbecause of limited infrastructure, facilitiesand services. In most cases the local com-munity did not seek to be the site for thefilming, yet they are left to cope with theconsequences of increased traffic, crowdingand pollution. Additional problems arisewhen the geographical details of the films

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are frequently invented along with thestoryline. Tourists who wish to travel inlandfrom Omaha Beach, following the path ofHanks and his men as they try to findPrivate Ryan, to find that most of the filmfor Saving Private Ryan was shot on thecoast of Ireland and in Hatfield,Hertfordshire and not at St. Laurent inFrance (Keeble, 1999). The question as towhat drives people to visit film locations hasbeen raised by several researchers (Keeble,1999; Riley et al., 1998). Riley et al. (1998)classified various types of attractions in themovies by adopting ‘icons,’ a focal pointwhich lures viewers to a location shown inthe movie. By using the word ‘icon,’ it wasimplied that a movie’s symbolic contents, asingle event, a favorite actor, a location’sphysical features or a theme can representall that is popular and compelling about amovie. Some locations attracted peoplebecause of their natural scenery (e.g., ARiver Runs Through It and The River Wild),while others just happened to be the sitewhere the theme or event took place (e.g.,Steel Magnolias and Fried Green Tomatoes).Keeble (1999) argued that people want toexperience again the emotions they experi-enced in the cinema – of fear, courage,fraternity, etc. and the fiction of the filmhad made the location all the more appeal-ing. Women gather at Arches National Parkin Utah, where Thelma and Louise drove offthe cliff, to share a sense of ‘self-empower-ment,’ while men head to Kakadu NationalPark in Northern Australia to experiencethe ‘outback machismo’ of Paul Hogan inCrocodile Dundee (Keeble, 1999).

The effects of movie tourism in thecontext of destination image have beendiscussed by Kim and Richardson (2003).They employed two components of destina-tion images, the cognitive and affectiveimages, to investigate influences of a popularmotion picture on viewers’ perception of thedepicted place, as well as familiarity andinterest in visiting. It was concluded that amotion picture could be an effective tool tochange place images and affect the audi-ences’ interest in visiting the place.

Similar study has been conducted byWarnick, Bojanic, and Siriangkul (2006) toexamine the effect of a movie on the image ofThailand among student travelers. Theresults indicated that college students didnot appear to consider viewing a movie as animportant factor that actually encouragesthem to visit the filmed location.

METHODS

The questionnaire was developed in aneffort to identify influence of the movie TheSound of Music in travel decisions and otherstudy objectives. The first draft of thequestionnaire was circulated to a panel ofsix expert judges for feedback regardingwording, layout and comprehension of thequestionnaire items. The final version of thesurvey instrument of the study comprisedfour parts. In Part I, five variables were usedto identify the impact of the movie withvisitors’ travel characteristics and obtain hisor her degree of satisfaction about the tour.Items were as follows: (1) the primarypurpose of your current visit to Salzburg(purpose); (2) most wanted place to visit inSalzburg (place); (3) frequency of watchingthe movie The Sound of Music (frequency);(4) information source (source); and (5) mostexpected part from ‘The Sound of MusicTour’ (expect). To measure the visitors’overall satisfaction with ‘The Sound ofMusic Tour,’ a non-verbal graphic scale witha continuum of 0 (not at all satisfied) to 100(totally satisfied) with 50 (mixed feelings) inthe middle (Chon, 1990). Part II was tomeasure the effectiveness of the movie TheSound of Music in visitation decisions on afive-point scale with one being ‘‘stronglydisagree’’ and five being ‘‘strongly agree.’’The items relating to travel decisions were:(1) After watching the movie, I have alwayswanted to visit the locations where themovie was filmed (want); (2) The moviehas influenced me to visit Salzburg (influ-ence); (3) Once I had seen the movie, I hadto come to Salzburg (come); and (4) ‘TheSound of music Tour’ today increased my

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interest in a future revisit to Salzburg(intention). In Part III, the PersonalInvolvement Inventory (PII) was adoptedto measure a visitor’s degree of involvementwith his or her visit to the movie sites. ThePII, originally developed by Zaichkowsky(1985), is a twenty-item scale requiring therespondent to indicate his or her feelingswith regard to importance, desirability,relevance, etc., of the product to him orher, with each item being measured on aseven-point semantic differential scale. PartIV dealt with respondents’ profile to providemore information about the characteristicsof the visitors.

Questionnaires were randomly distributedto 500 individuals, who participated in ‘TheSound of Music Tour’ in Salzburg, Austria.To make the sample more generalizable, aneffort was made to give the survey atdifferent hours on different weekdays andweekends. The subjects for this survey werelimited to those who can understand thequestions in English. Of the 500 distributedquestionnaires, 329 were collected and aftereliminating the unusable responses, a total of314 responses (response rate of 63%) werecoded for data analysis.

RESULTS

Demographic Profiles of Respondents

Table 1 presents the demographic charac-teristics of visitors who have participated in‘The Sound of Music Tour.’ The majority ofrespondents (68.1%) were female visitors andall age categories were represented in rela-tively equal proportions with age group of‘20–30’ being slightly higher proportion(28.3%) than other age groups. The majorityof respondents tended to have fairly higheducation levels with about 71 percentholding ‘college degree and above’ (35.2%)or ‘professional degrees’ such as law, medi-cal, and optometry (35.6%). Over half(53.2%) of respondents had an annualincome ranged between ‘US$29,999 andUS$50,000,’ whereas the respondents with

annual income of ‘US$70,000 and above’were about 35 percent (34.7%). The mostfrequently reported occupation by the respon-dents was professional/executives (33.8%) andthe largest proportion of the respondents(38.5%) resided in North America includingCanada, USA, and Mexico, followed by theresidents in Oceania region, mainly Australiaand New Zealand.

Travel Characteristics of Visitors

The majority of respondents (76.8%)were found to be first-time visitors toSalzburg, Austria and they were likely tovisit Salzburg for pleasure (79.3%) whereasabout 10 percent (10.2%) of people speci-fically indicated that they came to Salzburgto see the locations where the movie TheSound of Music was filmed. When therespondents were asked which place theymost wanted to visit in Salzburg, theanswers were: ‘the film locations of themove The Sound of Music (41.4%), ‘castlesand fortresses’ (21.0%), ‘mountains/lakes/parks’ (20.0%), ‘Mozart House’ (7.6%), and‘others’ (8.6%). Regarding frequency ofwatching the movie, the majority ofrespondents (71.0%) indicated between ‘1–10 times’ (58.3%) and ‘11 times and above’(12.7%), whereas 29 percent of the respon-dents reported that they had not seen themovie at all. In planning a trip to Salzburg,the movie The Sound of Music was likely tobe the most influential information source(42.7%), an indicative of impact of themovie in inducing tourists to Salzburg.Tour guidebook (18.5%) and travel agency(16.7%) were the second and third informa-tion source used by the respondents. Interms of evaluation of the trip to the filmlocations, the majority of the respondents(85.4%) reported that their actual experi-ence was about what they had expected(51.1%) or exceeded their expectation(34.3%). Likewise, about 78 percent(78.2%) of the respondents were satisfiedwith the trip to the film locations. Asummary of travel characteristics of therespondents is shown in Table 2.

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Influence of the Movie The Sound ofMusic on Travel Decisions

In determining whether the movie TheSound of Music influences travel decisions,frequency of watching the movie was com-pared with several variables relating to traveldecisions. The results suggested that themovie did influence respondents’ decisionlevel in visiting Salzburg. Respondentstended to agree that the movie ‘has influ-enced me to visit Salzburg’ (mean53.45) and‘increased my interest in a future revisit toSalzburg’ (mean53.72). They also indicatedthat ‘After I had seen the movie, I havealways wanted to visit the film locations’(mean53.63) and ‘Once I had seen themovie, I had to come to Salzburg’(mean53.68). One-way ANOVA was usedto further explore the relationship betweenthe frequency of watching the movie and thelevel of travel decisions (Table 3). Follow-uptests using post-hoc Duncan test were alsoused to examine the source of differencesacross the respondent subgroups. It wasdiscovered that there were differencesbetween the three groups for all of the four

variables at p,.001. Group three (six timesand above) reported the highest mean scoresfor three variables (want, come, and inten-tion), showing significant mean differencesfrom those of the other two groups. Grouptwo (1–5 times) indicated the highest meanscores in ‘influence.’ On the other hand,respondents who had not seen the movieindicated the lowest scores in all of the fourvariables.

A multiple regression analysis was per-formed to determine whether travel charac-teristics in association with the movie factorinfluence the respondents’ intention to revisitSalzburg. Two common measures, tolerancevalues and variance inflation factor values(VIF), were employed for multicollinearityissue. The results showed that tolerancevalues were higher than 0.60 with VIF valuesbeing quite close to 1.00, indicating very lowlevels of collinearity. Respondents’ intentionto revisit (the criterion variable) was simul-taneously regressed on the set of six pre-dictors of travel characteristics; ‘purpose,’‘visit,’ ‘source,’ ‘place,’ ‘frequency,’ and‘expect.’ According to Table 4, travel char-acteristics such as ‘source,’ ‘place,’ and

TABLE 1. Demographic Profiles of Respondents

Variables % Variables %

Age Gender20–30 28.3 Female 68.1

31–40 22.3 Male 31.9

41–50 19.1

51–60 17.8

61+ 12.4

Household Income(US$) EducationUnder $ 30,000 21.7 High school diploma 10.5

$30,001–$40,000 17.5 Some college 2.7

$40,001–$50,000 14.0 Associate/junior college degree 16.0

$50,001–$60,000 5.1 College degree 7.0

$60,001–$69,999 7.0 Graduate degree 17.3

$70,000+ 34.7 Doctoral degree 10.9

Professional degree(i.e., law, medical) 35.6

Occupation Country of ResidenceProfessional/executive 33.8 Asia 3.5

Technical 6.6 Europe 19.2

Housewife 6.2 North America (Canada, USA, Mexico) 38.5

Administrative personnel 9.5 South America 17.6

Student 13.4 Oceania (Australia and New Zealand) 21.2

Retired 12.5

Sales/manager 9.7

Others 8.3

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‘frequency’ were statistically significant(p,0.001) in predicting respondents’ inten-tion to revisit. Among the three variables,

‘frequency’ was the most significant predic-tor of respondents’ intention to revisitSalzburg (b50.32, p,0.000). It should be

TABLE 2. Travel Characteristics of Visitors

Variables % Variables %

What is the primary purpose of your current visit

to Salzburg?

Which of the following is the place you most wanted

to visit in Salzburg?

Pleasure(vacation) trip 79.3 Mozart House 7.6

To visit friends/relatives 1.6 The locations of the movie 41.4

To attend a conference/meeting 1.9 Castles and Fortresses 21.0

To visit the birth place of Mozart 1.0 Mountains/Lakes/Parks 20.0

To visit the sites where ‘‘The Sound of Music’’

was filmed

10.2 Museums 1.3

En route 4.1 Others 8.6

Others 1.9

How many times have you visited Salzburg

including this trip?

How many times have you watched the movie ‘‘The

Sound of Music’’?

First time 76.8 None 29.0

Two times 14.6 1–5 times 37.9

3–5 times 7.3 6–10 times 20.4

Over 6 times 1.3 11+ 12.7

Information sources in planning a trip to Salzburg What did you most expect from ‘‘The Sound of Music

Tour’’ today?

The movie ‘‘The Sound of Music’’ 42.7 To see the sites I have seen in the movie 68.5

Tour guide book 18.5 To experience the same feelings that I have felt in

the movie

16.4

Travel agency 16.7

Travel brochure/magazines 12.4 To find out how the real Von Trapp Family lived. 8.3

Word-of-mouth 5.4 To collect some souvenirs that remind me of my

favorite scenes in the movie

3.6

Media(TV/radio) 1.3 Others 3.2

Internet 1.5

Others 1.5

Your actual experience about the trip to the

locations of ‘The Sound of Music’ was:

Overall satisfaction with your ‘The Sound of Music

Tour’ today (on scale from 0 to 100):

Much lower than I expected 1.0 Scale 0–20 1.6

Lower than I expected 13.7 Scale 21–40 1.4

About what I expected 51.1 Scale 41–60 18.4

Better than I expected 27.8 Scale 61–80 37.1

Much better than I expected 6.5 Scale 81–100 41.1

TABLE 3. Influence of the Movie on Travel Decisions

Travel decisions Frequency of watching the movie

None(G1)

1–5 times(G2)

6+times(G3)

F p

After watching the movie ‘‘The Sound of Music,’’ I have always

wanted to visit the locations where the movie was filmed (WANT)

3.26a 3.50a 4.10b 14.46* .000

The move has influenced me to visit Salzburg* (INFLUENCE) 2.98 a 3.92 c 3.39b 21.42* .000

Once I had seen the movie, I had to come to Salzburg* (COME) 3.10 a 3.64 b 4.22 c 26.26* .000

‘‘The Sound of Music Tour’’ today increased my interest in a future

revisit to Salzburg* (INTENTION)

3.09 a 3.65 b 4.35 c 33.04* .000

Notes: * p,0.001a, b, c indicate the source of significant differences (a,b,c)

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noted that R2 for the multiple regressionanalysis was statically significant, explainingabout 24 percent of the total variance inintention to visit.

Independent sample t-test was performedto compare differences between those whohad seen the movie (movie-watcher) andthose who had not seen the movie (non-watcher) in travel characteristics and traveldecisions. The differences in four variablesrelating to travel decisions were tested for thetwo groups and only one variable ‘intentionto revisit’ was found to be significantlydifferent with the movie watchers (p50.008)(Table 6). Among the six travel characteris-tics, three variables (‘purpose,’ ‘place,’ and‘expect’) indicated significant differences inthe movie watchers with higher mean scoresthan non-watchers.

Comparison of Travel Characteristics andTravel Decisions with DemographicGroups

A series of ANOVA with post-hocDuncan multiple range tests was assessedto identify significant differences in travelcharacteristics and travel decisions withvarious demographic groups (age, income,education, origin of residence). The resultspresented that only two demographicgroups, age and origin of residence, differedsignificantly with respect to travel character-istics (Table 6). The post-hoc tests identifiedrespondents in the age group of ‘61 andabove’ showing significant mean differencesfrom other age groups in travel character-istics such as ‘place’ and ‘expect.’Respondents from Oceania region showed

TABLE 4. Relationship between Intention to Revisit and Travel Characteristics

Independent Variables Beta t-value p-value

Primary purpose of visit to Salzburg (purpose) 0.02 0.43 0.665

Number of times to visit Salzburg (visit) 20.20 20.39 0.696

Information Source (source) 20.17 23.40* 0.001The most desired place to visit in Salzburg (place) 0.14 2.62* 0.009Frequency of watching the movie (frequency) 0.32 4.94* 0.000The most expected thing from today’s tour (expect) 20.04 20.77 0.433

Notes: Adjusted R250.24; Tolerance values .0.60, VIF values ,1.0* p,0.001

TABLE 5. Differences between Watchers and Non-Watchers

Variables Movie-watchers

Non-Watchers

t-value p-value

Travel DecisionsAfter watching the movie ‘‘The Sound of Music,’’ I have always

wanted to visit the locations where the movie was filmed (want)

3.78 3.26 3.61 0.27

The move has influenced me to visit Salzburg (influence) 3.64 2.98 5.11 0.29

Once I had seen the movie, I had to come to Salzburg (come) 3.91 3.10 5.90 0.13

‘‘The Sound of Music Tour’’ today increased my interest in a future

revisit to Salzburg (intention)

3.97 3.09 6.34* 0.00

Travel CharacteristicsPrimary purpose of trip to Salzburg (purpose) 1.92 1.54 1.78* 0.00Number of times to visit Salzburg (visit) 2.43 2.55 21.13 0.08

Information Source (source) 2.39 2.58 20.92 0.14

The most desired place to visit in Salzburg (place) 3.45 3.58 20.71* 0.00Frequency of watching the movie (frequency) 1.51 1.44 0.78 0.57

The most expected part from today’s tour (expect) 1.59 2.05 22.94* 0.00

Note: * significantly different at p,0.001.

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highest mean score in ‘primary purpose oftrip to Salzburg’ (purpose). Finally, amongdemographic groups, only age group wasfound to be different across all but one of thevariables relating to travel decisions with theage group of ‘61 and above’ being the highestmean scores. The only non-significant vari-able was ‘After watching the movie, I havealways wanted to visit Salzburg’ (want).

The Personal Involvement Inventory (PII)

Zaichkowsky (1985) suggests that lowinvolvement is found in a score rangingfrom 20 to 69; medium scores: 70 to 110; andhigh scores: 111 to 140. The PII score iscomputed as follows: for low involvement,scores from 1.00620 to 3.45620 (20 to 69);medium involvement, 3.5620 to less 5.5620(69 to 110); high involvement from 5.55620to 7.0620 (111 to 140).

The PII data indicated that the respon-dents’ degree of involvement fall into themedium range (mean5109.78). Table 7illustrates the means of each involvementitem with average scores. The means for the‘important/unimportant’ (mean56.26) and‘appealing/unappealing’ (mean55.90) itemsreceived highest means which may indicatethat these items are relevant to the

respondents’ interest in the film sites.Likewise, it would seem that the constructssuch as ‘trivial/fundamental’ (mean54.74)and ‘does not matter/matters to me’(mean54.40) in the PII scale are least

TABLE 6. Demographic Differences in Travel Characteristics and Travel Decisions

Demographic Travel decisions Travel characteristics

want influence come intention purpose place frequency expect

Age20–30 3.65 3.36 ab 3.52 ab 3.58 ab 2.03 3.35ab 2.56 1.70 a

31–40 3.50 3.59 bc 3.77 abc 3.81 bc 2.04 3.43ab 2.67 1.61 a

41–50 3.43 3.08a 3.40 a 3.27 a 1.63 3.03a 2.37 1.53 a

51–60 3.93 3.54 bc 3.88 bc 4.00 bc 1.46 3.63b 2.07 1.57 a

61+ 3.77 3.82 c 4.05 c 4.14 c 1.51 4.41c 1.78 2.49 b

p-value 0.295 0.015* 0.018* 0.013* 0.263 0.000** 0.174 0.020*

ResidenceAsia 3.44 3.56 3.56 3.75 1.38a 3.13 1.44 1.56

Europe 3.59 3.48 3.75 3.79 1.56ab 3.66 1.59 1.62

N.America 3.67 3.53 3.74 3.79 1.79ab 3.53 1.48 1.78

S.America 3.36 2.82 3.00 3.09 1.00a 3.64 1.27 1.64

Oceania 3.67 3.25 3.55 3.53 2.45b 3.24 1.45 1.73

p-value 0.840 0.155 0.251 0.259 0.016* 0.497 0.625 0.916

Note: * significantly different at p,0.05; ** at p,0.001.a, b, c indicate the source of significant differences (a,b,c)

TABLE 7. A Summary of the PII levels ofInvolvement

Involvement Items Means SD

Unimportant vs. Important 6.26 1.00

Of no concern to me vs. of concern to me 5.90 1.03

Irrelevant vs. Relevant 5.54 1.01

Means nothing to me vs. Means a lot to me 5.73 1.22

Useless vs. Useful 5.38 1.24

Worthless vs. Valuable 5.62 1.22

Trivial vs. Fundamental 4.74 1.49

Not beneficial vs. Beneficial 5.49 1.15

Does not matter to me vs. Matters to me 4.40 1.24

Uninterested vs. Interested 5.46 0.97

Insignificant vs. Significant 5.46 1.11

Superfluous vs. Vital 5.38 1.07

Boring vs. Interesting 5.67 1.02

Unexciting vs. Exciting 5.87 0.86

Unappealing vs. Appealing 5.27 1.23

Mundane vs. Fascinating 5.49 1.16

Nonessential vs. Essential 5.55 1.25

Undesirable vs. Desirable 5.12 1.27

Unwanted vs. Wanted 5.58 1.06

Not needed vs. Needed 5.87 1.07

Total mean score 109.78*

Note: * The PII range: from 20 to 69 (low); from 70 to 110 (medium);from 111 to 140 (high)

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related to the respondents’ involvement intheir visits to the locations.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

The main objective of this study was toexamine influence of the movie The Sound ofMusic in respondents’ travel decisions toSalzburg, Austria, where the movie wasfilmed. This study suggests that the moviecan be an influential factor to attract visitorsto the film locations. When respondents wereasked to what extent the movie affected theirtrip to Salzburg, more than half of respon-dents agreed following statements: ‘Themovie has influenced me to visit Salzburg’(52.8%), ‘After I had seen the movie, I hasalways wanted to visit the film locations’(62.7%), and ‘Once I had seen the movie, Ihad to come to Salzburg’ (56.7%). Thefindings also support those of several studieson the phenomenon that films encouragetourism to destinations and would considertraveling to film locations in the future (e.g.,Busby & Klug, 2001; Kim et al., 2006;Warnick et al., 2005). With respect to impactof the movie between those who had seen themovie and those who had not seen the movie,respondents who were exposed to the moviewere more likely to be influenced by themovie than those who were not exposed to themovie in intention to visit the film locations.These results are different from those ofWarnick et al.’s study (2005), which reportedno significant differences between those twogroups on the likelihood to visit Thailand.

Another indication of a significant role ofthe movie can be found in relationshipbetween frequency of watching the movieand travel decisions. The results show thatrespondents with viewing the movie morethan six times tended to be more heavilyinfluenced than those who had not seen themovie in visitation decisions, particularly,relating to intention to visit Salzburg. Intourism literature, familiarity includingactual or previous visitation has been foundto be an important factor influencing visi-tors’ decision-making process (i.e., Baloglu

& Mangaloglu, 2001; Dann, 1996; Hu andRitchie, 1993; Andereck, 2005). Likewise,Gyte and Phelps (1989) confirmed that aprevious visit played a critical role inattracting tourists to revisit the destination.In this sense, the results of the studyconfirmed that movies familiarize audienceswith places and attractions featured in them,thus, observing a movie can increase thedegree of familiarity with the places itportrays (Kim and Richardson, 2003; Rileyand Van Doren, 1992). In addition, thisstudy supported that film has become adominant source of information (Macionis,2004) by identifying the movie as majorinformation source heavily used by respon-dents in planning a trip to Salzburg. Finally,with respect to demographic profiles, major-ity of the respondents held a higher-leveleducational background (70.8%) with arelatively higher disposable income thannormal, ranging between US$70K and above(34.7%). Busby and Klug’s study in 2001partly support these results by arguing thatcultural tourists tend to be affluent olderprofessionals and senior managers. Furtheranalyses on demographic differences intravel decisions confirmed that older peopletended to be more influenced than other agegroups by the movie in visitation decisions.

In conclusion, it is clear that moreresearches are needed to document thislargely unexplored phenomenon by investi-gating various movies at different locations.Further efforts should be made to investigatethe influence of movies in terms of motiva-tional and behavioral aspects. It is critical forlocal film commissioners and tourism mar-keters to conduct a research to assess thesecondary economic effect of tourist spend-ing generated from visitation to movielocations in order to utilize the movies asvaluable tourism publicity and promotiontools. It is also recommended that researchrelated to the various tourism impacts createdby movies in both positive and negativeshould be conducted. Although it is widelyknown phenomenon that movies influencethe travel preference and destination choicesof visitors in terms of visitor increase, this

Holly Hyunjung Im and Kaye Chon 237

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movie-induced tourism cannot always createpositive impacts, particularly, on a localcommunity. One limitation of this study isthat the subjects of the survey were limited toEnglish-speaking tourists only because thesurvey instrument was developed in English.As a consequence, the survey was mainlycompleted by subjects who resided in NorthAmerica including Canada and USA, andOceania (Australia and New Zealand). Theresults of the survey, therefore, may notreflect the whole body of the visitors underthe study. Another limitation is that the datacollected was based on the movie The Soundof Music and ‘‘Salzburg, Austria’’ only.Therefore, implications may or may not applyto different movies and their film locations.

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