Lights! Camera! Action! Unveiling film tourists' profile

Abstract

Purpose

This research aims to analyse the degree of influence that viewing frequency and preferences for movies and television (TV)/platforms series and aspects related to movie destinations have on the socio-demographic profile of the tourist interested in film tourism.

Design/methodology/approach

An artificial neural network (ANN) is used, in which the input values correspond to the questions asked through the questionnaire and the estimated output values are the socio-demographic profile.

Findings

Low frequency of attendance at movie theatres, especially amongst the youngest. Profiles with a higher level of education value the cultural elements in the destination more. A high-income profile is revealed that considers the visit to the film destination as a secondary reason for their trip since they value the proximity to the main holiday destination and show that this visit does not bring them greater satisfaction than other activities. Experiential tourism is another aspect valued by the profiles with the highest income, which can be easily related to film tourism.

Originality/value

Customised input values estimate specific output values, building “identikits” of tourists based on the responses incorporated into the model and easily customisable by the researcher, making them useful in film tourism products and service elaboration. Although this method has been used successfully on other tourist profile types, no studies of this type applied to film tourism were found, and this work aims to pioneer this line.

Citation

Aguilar-Rivero, M., Solano-Sánchez, M.Á., López-Guzmán, T. and Moral-Cuadra, S. (2024), "Lights! Camera! Action! Unveiling film tourists' profile", Journal of Cultural Heritage Management and Sustainable Development, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/JCHMSD-11-2023-0196