Films 'more effective' than travel agents

Last updated at 07:53 28 June 2005


Silver screen images are having more effect on would-be tourists than travel agents' window displays, according to a survey.

Just 4 per cent are encouraged to get away from it all by travel agents displays while around one in five is influenced by seeing exotic locations in movies.

And nearly one in four have their imagination fired by newspaper and magazine travel articles, the YouGov survey for South Africa Tourism found.

Very few get the travel urge from poster advertising (1 per cent) or radio advertising (1 per cent).

Scots are most likely to be swayed by TV advertising (20 per cent), whereas Londoners claim to be most affected by the newspapers and magazines they read (32 per cent).

The survey, of 2,000 people, further revealed that men are far more likely to book a holiday after watching their favourite film, whereas women are more easily won over by newspapers and magazines.

South Africa Tourism's UK and the Americas manager Claude Pretorius said: 'These findings confirm how much Britons are influenced by what they read and watch. In recent years we have seen what films like Lord of the Rings and The Beach have done for tourism in New Zealand and Thailand.

'Films and magazine articles especially seem to capture the imagination of the man on the street who seems to be increasingly seeking aspirational holiday destinations.'

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