India was estimated to have produced 1,500 + films in 2022 making it one of the largest contributors to the global film tourism market which was estimated to be roughly ~ $ 60 billion.
Films can have a lasting impact on us and therefore our travel decisions, since it drives us to see and experience the filmed locations first hand. This automatically leads to an increase in favourable recall for the destinations and therefore tourism.
After the resounding success of many India-centred films and productions, several international studios have actively incorporated a large portion of their films in India due to availability of talented filmmaking crew, actors, picturesque locations and world- class production capabilities and those at highly competitive costs.
Over and above, the locations get the additional benefits of income, capital and operating investments, jobs, taxes, all of which contribute to the state and to the country’s economic development.
Keeping that in mind, the draft strategy is proposed to focus on the following pillars: National and state level coordination, country and destination branding, destination infrastructure development, global bilateral film tourism treaties, international scale skilling, financial incentives, post film travel and tourism outreach and structural and governance mechanisms.
Nakul Anand, Chairman, FAITH, says, “We are extremely thankful to the Government for accepting our proposed inputs for draft film tourism strategy for India. Film tourism segment impacts all our stakeholders – hoteliers, tourist transporters, travel agents and tour operators, restaurants, destinations and so on, and thus requires an integrated effort across all ministries and departments. Presidents of all 10 national member associations will, along with their executive committees, identify inputs to contribute to finalising the film tourism policy in due course.”
