ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the evolution of film tourism in New Zealand and demonstrates that its prominence is the result of the country’s remote geographic location and colonial history. Following the release of Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy in the early 2000s, New Zealand became one of the most popular film tourism destinations in the world. A few years later, The Hobbit trilogy (2012–2014) reignited interest in the ‘New Zealand, Home of Middle Earth’ tourism campaign (Leotta 2016). While many studies have explored the characteristics of so-called Middle Earth tourism and its impact on the country’s economy, society and identity, this chapter considers the broader relationship between New Zealand, film and tourism, arguing that the versatility of the New Zealand landscape, as well as the settler construction of this landscape as transposable otherness, paved the way to its branding as Home of Middle Earth. While certain stakeholders and sectors of New Zealand society have embraced film tourism and the economic benefits associated with it, various scholars and commentators, particularly from an Indigenous Māori viewpoint, have criticised the cultural consequences of the country’s conflation with fantasy lands such as Middle Earth.
