Huntington Beach,
Calif. -- Did you chose a vacation to Huntington Beach after
watching a TV show? It's fairly unlikely. While nearby
Laguna Beach (MTV) and Newport Beach (The OC) or Sunset
Beach (Sunset Beach) have all gotten a show, HB hasn't
recently (at time of this publication) snagged that
publicity on these national distribution programs. But is a
show worth all the publicity? Does it really sell hotel
rooms? You would think, "yes". But read on...
Research from Travel
Industry Association (TIA) offers some interesting data into
this phenomenon. While it's believed that people flock to
Hollywood to see stars, they probably aren't going to visit
Hawaii because of Hawaii-5-0. Or see Beverly Hills because
of Beverly Hills 90210. TV shows have little effect on
a traveler’s choice of destination, according to recent
data. Only four percent of all travelers in the past
three years selected a vacation destination because of a
movie or TV show they saw. This translates to 5.1 million
U.S. adults. Just three percent of travelers did so in the
past year.
Travelers who choose a destination as the result of seeing a
movie or a TV show are more likely than total U.S. travelers
to be younger (37 years, average age) and have a higher
household income of $81,000 average (mean) annual household
income. They also tend to be married (64%), male (55%),
completed college (39%), have children in the household
(44%) and work in a professional or managerial occupation
(32).
As web publisher and
journalist, I once took a side trip to promote
Huntington Beach tourism for two years. During
that time I recall the city and Huntington Beach
Conference and Visitors Bureau's efforts to snag TV or
film productions. One pet project our bureau was
involved in was MTV's Beach House. Other cities
got the gig, and not much has been reported about the
results of their hosting it. One former planning
commissioner, Steve Ray, and his wife have worked in
Hollywood as actor and his wife as a film producer. They
had hoped to see HB get classified within the zone for
film production. A web site was built through city
funding to attempt to lure film companies to Huntington
Beach recently, as well.
But if the statistics above
are true about visitor volumes to a city based on
watching a movie or TV show, the efforts to lure
production crews have to be weighed with city expenses
for administrative costs in processing their
applications and fees, and blocking off land that's part
of the coast open to all tourists, vacationers and
locals.
Many of the Los Angeles cities
tolerate film efforts because it helps promote their
local industry, movie making. But the traffic
snarls and other issues that arise from filming become
annoying to those who work and live in the communities
where streets are closed for yet, another filming.
As a tourist to Vancouver,
B.C., recently, I didn't think much about it when I
recognized actress Linda Hamilton in line at Starbucks
next to me. She smiled as I looked at her and thought
for a moment that she seemed familiar. It all clicked
when my tour guide, a brilliant journalist, Eldrid and I
were forced to walk around the block and out of our way
because the film set was placed in the middle of a
street and the sidewalks were blocked. As he complained
about the closure, I told him I'd seen an actress in
Starbucks, and he explained that Vancouver has become a
popular film location because its cheaper to produce
movies and shows there. We were on an extremely tight
schedule and it cost us a spot we were heading for by
having to make a detour from Eldrid's well traveled
path.
So is filming good for
tourists, or for economies? Some cities are bullish on
filming and others are not. In Huntington Beach
we've seen our fair share of celebs and are surrounded
by industry folks who live in our neighborhoods and
commute to Hollywood.
While nonprofit travel
industries such as TIA and the California state tourism
arm, California Travel and Tourism Commission, both host
international travelers and lure that small percent
(less than 15% in California) to the state through
conferences, fam tours, press trips and other efforts,
they tend not to spend money or to focus on a 3 to 5%
category source of revenue. For cities such as
Huntington Beach, such marketing efforts may offer
limited ROI. But the trend to lure film productions to
cities marketed as destinations is a popular trend
you'll see throughout California. Destination management
organizations tend to use these film efforts as bragging
rights to promote their spot as worthy of attention.
For the tourist, your
best bet for finding film stars in Huntington Beach might be
on a weekend evening at an outdoor cafe along Main Street.
The biggest challenge is in recognizing celebrities without
all the makeup. Often they look ordinary and not as you
expect.
