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According to a report on the development of screen tourism in Croatia commissioned by the Croatian Audiovisual Centre, the expression „Game of Thrones Croatia” was entered in the Google search engine 1,570,000 times. With an audience of 14.2 million the show has already boosted awareness of Croatia as the shooting location of the popular HBO series.
Local agency, Viator, is already offering a three hours guided tour to Dubrovnik’s old town as pictured in Game of Thrones.
The expression "screen tourism" might be new, but the idea is not. Highclere Castle has benefited from screen tourism since the series Downton Abbey started using it as major location with the popular series attracting hordes of visitors to the castle. The same goes for the Wallace Monument in Scotland that was used as location for Braveheart which saw the number of visitors increase by 300% after the film was released.
But to cash in on screen tourism, more Croatian locations need to be clearly identifiable Croatian sites on screen.
Juliane Schulze, senior partner at the consultancy for financing on creative industries company Peacefulfish, that prepared the report said: “Croatia has proved to be an excellent stand-in for countries like Australia, France, UK or Bosnia and Herzegovina, but we should develop specifically Croatian stories and build strategies how to keep the film locations Croatian locations”.
