The long shot
Using Scotland as a film location should guarantee a tourism bonanza, but it’s a story that doesn’t always have a happy ending
Lights, camera, action, KER-CHING! – or not, as the case may be. Hopes of a bumper tourist season in Scotland are resting once more on the pulling power of worldwide film and TV exposure – this time on the back of the historical romance drama Outlander. The production, based on Diana Gabaldon’s bestselling novels, has already attracted 175,000 visitors to the Visit-Scotland website, while filming locations such as Culross and Doune Castle have seen a surge in visitor numbers.
Mike Cantlay, chairman of Visit-Scotland, has no doubt about the money-spinning allure of this and other film ventures. ‘Scotland,’ he says, ‘is the land that inspired Outlander and it is great to see that the series has already had such a positive impact on tourism. With 40% of visitors to the UK inspired to come here after seeing a location on screen, a major TV series being shot in Scotland brings huge potential benefits to the tourism industry.’
But does it? Outlander follows a long list of high-profile movies such as Rob Roy and Brave, where hopes were high of a tourism bonanza. Visit-Scotland, confident of seeing huge returns, has poured millions of pounds into films.
Some have worked. Others have not. Brave, created by Disney/Pixar and featuring the voices of Billy Connolly and Robbie Coltrane, was billed as a sure-fire tourism hit that would boost the economy by £140m. Visit-Scotland launched its largest-ever global advertising campaign, spending £7m on the project. Cantlay said the film represented a ‘great opportunity’. But little benefit was discerned. MSPs were later told by Scots film-makers that the money would have been better spent supporting the country’s film infrastructure and film-makers.
So what turns some dramas into a magnetic draw but not others? In New Zealand the Lord of the Rings series and The Hobbit brought a huge boost to the country’s tourism industry. Even though just 1% of visitors said they came only because of the films, more than 80% were aware that the movies had been shot there. Tourism, incidentally, is New Zealand’s second largest
industry. The NZ government recognised the importance of the industry by offering tax incentives to large-scale productions, and the screen industry is now worth an incredible £1.54bn a year to the New Zealand economy.
Nearer home, the production costs of the medieval fantasy epic Game of Thrones (the wages of the resident cast and crew, hotel bills, facilities hire, transport and the construction costs for shoots) have pumped £22m per series directly into Northern Ireland’s economy, meaning that by the end of 2015 almost £100m will have been spent in Ulster – and that’s without factoring in the enormous tourism benefits. Not a bad return on the original £6.5m injected by Invest NI to secure the first two seasons.
Tourism Ireland and the NI Tourist Board are using the series to showcase some of the country’s finest scenery, including the north coast and the Mourne mountains. Tourist chiefs believe the show is giving Northern Ireland the biggest worldwide exposure it has ever achieved outside of politics and the Troubles.
The Harry Potter films, meanwhile, led to a 120% rise in visitors to Northumberland’s Alnwick Castle, bringing some £9m worth of tourism to the region. The franchise has also made the ‘Hogwarts Express’ – the train that runs from Fort William to Mallaig – an unmissable part of a trip to Scotland.
But you don’t have to feature in a Hollywood blockbuster to reap rewards: TV productions such as Balamory and Monarch of the Glen boosted local tourism. Tobermory, population 1,000 and setting for Balamory, saw visitor numbers soar by 160,000. The series is thought to have contributed an estimated £5m a year to the economy of Mull and the Western Islands.
Down south, Cornwall has gone Poldark mad. The hit remake of Winston Graham’s romantic drama is bringing in visitors and bookings for hotels and self-catering cottages. The original Poldark mine, which went into administration a few years ago, has been reopened. House prices are also said to have risen in the area of Gunwalloe on the south-west coast, where
‘The NZ government recognised the importance of the film industry by offering tax incentives to large-scale productions’
some of the drama is set, with swooning women hoping to catch a glimpse of some latter-day Ross Poldark stripped to the waist and scything corn as Atlantic breakers pound on the shore.
Lyme Park in Cheshire, the setting for Mr Darcy’s wet shirt scene in the TV series of Pride and Prejudice, saw visitor numbers almost triple shortly after broadcast. Even the windswept beaches of West Bay in Dorset, setting of the recent ITV crime series Broadchurch, have recorded a rise in visitors – inspired by the stunning scenery, one assumes, rather than the gruesome discovery of bodies on the shore.
Scotland has a winning combination of fabulous natural scenery and a dramatic, romantic history, making it a sure-fire location winner. But it has not been easy for t he country’s film industry. Supporters contrast the £7m government support to market Brave with the total of just £3m set aside for film productions in Scotland, with producers only able to secure a maximum grant of £300,000 per film. Both Northern Ireland and the Republic spend more than three times as much on film productions each year, which is why many films and television series end up being made in Ireland ( Braveheart’s Battle of Stirling Bridge scene, which required 2,000 extras, was filmed in Ireland, for instance). A 2010 study by Indecon Consultants concluded that generous tax breaks given by Ireland to the creative industries helped contribute to an annual boost of £3.43bn to the Irish economy, and the direct and indirect support of 78,900 jobs.
Senior industry figures tell of institutional neglect, disillusionment and frustration as competitors in Ireland and Wales enjoy a screen goldrush. A review by Creative Scotland last year found the country was trailing European rivals, blaming a lack of funding and strategic commitment, a shortage of suitable facilities and a talent drain. It is widely thought Scotland lost out on Game of Thrones due to lack of studio space, for instance, while Pinewood has opted to open a new UK facility in Cardiff rather than Scotland.
The Scottish government has been under pressure to develop the country’s first purposebuilt studio facility to help the regional industry broaden its international appeal. Gillian Berrie, co-founder of Glasgow’s Sigma Films, points out that there are fewer than five film companies in Scotland regularly producing feature-length work at international level and – more worrying still – no next generation to continue their efforts: ‘They’ve all gone to London or abroad because they’ve seen how long we’ve struggled and how broke we are.’
There are flickers of hope, however. Film Edinburgh says 361 projects were completed last year – 6% up on the year before. And it was recently announced that the biggest battle scene ever shot in Scotland, with 500 extras for the Bonnie Prince Charlie biopic The Great Getaway, will begin filming at the end of June.
Meanwhile, detailed planning is under way for a potential £125m film studio complex just outside Edinburgh. The project, driven by developers Pentland Studios, includes a combined studio, backlot and hotel. Making the most of our breathtaking scenery – and having a script with a romantic storyline that engages – would also help.
‘The next generation of film-makers have all gone to London or abroad because they’ve seen how long we’ve struggled and how broke we are’