ABSTRACT
Tourism marketing is one of the most influential means of maintaining and increasing the number of visitors and stays in a destination. Hence, the evaluation of the success of a tourism marketing campaign is vital not only for the destination, since it involves important economic benefits, but also for the organisations funding these campaigns. Greater knowledge about the effectiveness of different types of marketing could help government organisations and businesses in the region to tailor their products to achieve greater benefits from marketing expenditures. Expenditure on marketing by Destination Marketing Organisations (DMOs) has been subject to debate and the question of effectiveness has often been raised. Until recently, DMOs have not attempted to answer the question with any rigour of whether their marketing works. However, the more forwardlooking organisations are now starting to tackle this question by employing quantitative methods and analytical techniques. This chapter outlines how a regional tourism agency evaluated a filminspired tourism marketing campaign. A marketing campaign was devised to coincide with the release of the 2005 version of Pride & Prejudice, a film based on the Jane Austen novel. The key component of the marketing campaign was the production of a movie map showing potential visitors the locations of scenes depicted in the film. Visitor research was undertaken to evaluate the success of the marketing campaign, with particular emphasis on the movie map, in converting potential visitors (those requesting a movie map) to travel to the destination. The main focus of the research was to determine the “conversion rate” of people requesting a movie map. The incremental spend to the region and subsequent return on investment of the marketing campaign was quantified. The study provides insight into the usefulness of the creation of a movie map in driving visitors to locations used in the film.
