As described in our story, The World’s Most Movie-Centric Destinations (part one), streaming services have transformed the travel scene for film fans (or set-jetters as they are known) who love to travel to see their favorite movie destinations live and in person.
Movie-inspired travel has increased in recent years, starting cottage industries like the TCM Classic Film Tour in NY and countless “Game of Thrones” and “Sex in the City” tours for TV and film lovers of all ages and nationalities.
Here are more film-centric destinations and the movies that inspired them.
Las Vegas
Las Vegas, Nevada, USA at the Welcome to Las Vegas Sign at dusk.
Ever since the 1964 Elvis hit, “Viva Las Vegas” Bugsy Malone’s oasis of gambling and hedonism in the desert has found a place on the big and small silver screens.
Films shot here include Diamonds are Forever, Oceans 11, Casino, Leaving Las Vegas, Heat, Mars Attacks!, Jason Bourne and many others.
Movie fans will look in vain for some of the older, demolished hotels featured in early films, but vintage signage still shows up on the streets and the overall look and feel of the city will make any movie-lovers trip to Vegas a cinematic experience.
Actors Elvis Presley and Ann-Margret appear on a poster for the MGM movie ‘Viva Las Vegas’, 1964. … [+] (Photo by Movie Poster Image Art/Getty Images)
New Zealand, Lord of The Rings
Although Peter Jackson’s 2001, 2002, 2003 trilogy based on J. R. R. Tolkien’s books seem like a phenomenon from long ago, the impact they had on tourism to New Zealand can still be felt.
Places like the Weta Cave experience in Wellington and the Hobbiton set in Waikato are still pilgrimage points for fans of the films and books. Air New Zealand has even created LOTR-liveries planes, dedicated to the millions of fans they bring to their shores every year.
Hobbiton movie set created for filming The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit movies in North Island … [+] of New Zealand
Iceland (Prometheus, Game of Thrones)
Iceland is no longer a place far, far away for most travelers. Thanks to connectivity through low cost national airlines, travelers have put this country of immense waterfalls and scenic glaciers very much on the map of places to track your favorite film scenes.
Fans of the Alien franchise Prometheus will recognize parts of the movie as the alien planet where the creators of the human race begin their strange journey. Iceland’s Dettifoss Water in the North and the Hekla volcano in the south were two main filming locations.
Icelandic locations were also used to shoot “Wall” scenes in Game of Thrones.
Prometheus star Charlize Theron apparently became very fond of the natural spring spas that are everywhere in Iceland (and not very expensive). The most famous spring spa is, of course, the Blue Lagoon, but according to local gossip, Theron favored the smaller, more locals spas in Reykjavik.
*** EXCLUSIVE ***
ICELAND – SEPTEMBER 2016: A general view of a waterfall in Iceland, September … [+] 2016.
EVERY year the mild temperatures of summer melt large ice glaciers, feeding the powerful waterfalls of Iceland. New waterfalls are forming constantly in these warmer months, whilst the larger, more renowned falls are thriving. Tourists from all around the globe visit these enormous water chutes to marvel at their sheer scale and the sporadic rainbows refracting in the water mist. Its no wonder that these dramatic landscapes of Iceland are the backdrop for numerous fantasy films and TV shows, such as Prometheus and Game of Thrones. Photographer Russell Pearson travelled around Iceland, snapping five of the major waterfalls in September 2016.
PHOTOGRAPH BY Russell Pearson / Barcroft Images
London-T:+44 207 033 1031 E:[email protected] –
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New Delhi-T:+91 11 4053 2429 E:[email protected] www.barcroftmedia.com (Photo credit should read Russell Pearson / Barcroft Image / Barcroft Media via Getty Images)
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM – MAY 31: Charlize Theron attends the world premiere of Prometheus at Empire … [+] Leicester Square on May 31, 2012 in London, England. (Photo by Eamonn McCormack/WireImage)
LONDON, ENGLAND – MAY 31: Actor Michael Fassbender attends the world premiere of “Prometheus” at … [+] the Empire Leicester Square on May 31, 2012 in London, England. (Photo by Ian Gavan/Getty Images)
Istanbul
Spanning two continents, Asia and Europe and filled with centuries of history, Istanbul is a movie-maker’s dream.
Famously used as the main location in the Bond film, From Russia With Love (1963), where the famed monument of the ancient Cistern is vividly on display, you can also see Istanbul in 2012’s Skyfall and Taken 2 and in many other movies made in Turkey’s cultural gem of a city over the years. Perhaps one of most vivid in terms of capturing the look and feel of a city in time is the 1964 technicolor film, Topkapi which is about a jewel heist from the famed museum of the same name. Stars Maximillian Schell, Melina Mercouri and Peter Ustinov gamble about on the domed rooftops of the city and end up at a scenic slice of Turkish life — an oil wrestling match. The Turkish sport of oil wrestling (wrestlers covered in olive oil) goes back to ancient Greece and is still practiced today. Watch the film for an extended introduction into this still active sport and then plan your next trip to Turkey accordingly.
ISTANBUL, TURKEY – JANUARY 31: Tourists walk through the famous Basilica Cistern on January 31, … [+] 2017 in Istanbul, Turkey. According to a Turkish Statistics Institute report released today, Turkey’s tourism revenue dropped by 27.2 percent to 4.8billion in the fourth quarter of 2016. Terror attacks and economic instability fueled a massive tourism plunge in 2016, revenue for the year dropped 29.7 percent as foreign visitor numbers plunged. Despite the downturn visitors continue to tour Istanbul’s famous sites including the Basilica Cistern, made famous after appearing in movies such as James Bond, ‘From Russia with Love’ the 2009 film ‘The International’ and most recently Ron Howard’s ‘Inferno’. (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)
Scottish actor Sean Connery and Italian actress Daniela Bianchi rehearse and film a bedroom scene … [+] for the James Bond film ‘From Russia With Love’ at Pinewood Studios, UK, 11th April 1963. (Photo by Terry Fincher/Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
From Russia With Love, poster, from bottom left: Aliza Gur, Martine Beswick, Daniela Bianchi, Sean … [+] Connery, Lisa Guiraut, 1963. (Photo by LMPC via Getty Images)
ISTANBUL, TURKEY – JANUARY 31: Tourists visit one of the Medusa head pillars inside the famous … [+] Basilica Cistern on January 31, 2017 in Istanbul, Turkey. According to a Turkish Statistics Institute report released today, Turkey’s tourism revenue dropped by 27.2 percent to 4.8billion in the fourth quarter of 2016. Terror attacks and economic instability fueled a massive tourism plunge in 2016, revenue for the year dropped 29.7 percent as foreign visitor numbers plunged. Despite the downturn visitors continue to tour Istanbul’s famous sites including the Basilica Cistern, made famous after appearing in movies such as James Bond, ‘From Russia with Love’ the 2009 film ‘The International’ and most recently Ron Howard’s ‘Inferno’. (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)
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