THE DEVELOPING MARKETING STRATEGY TO PROMOTE FILM TOURISM IN MALAYSIA

Abstract

This paper reviews the conceptual framework of film tourism marketing mix and the proposed framework of the marketing strategy to promote film tourism in Malaysia. A convergent mixed methods design collected qualitative and quantitative in parallel. For qualitative, in-depth interviews with tourism and film industry in Malaysia (n=11) was employed. Whereas, tour operator survey (n=313) of Malaysia Association Tour and Travel Agent (MATTA) was chosen. From data integration, seven success factors (tools) of marketing strategy are identified to promote film tourism in Malaysia. It includes film products, destination attributes, location access, destination promotion, creative teams, packages based on famous film and collaboration film commissions and government efforts. The practical implication of this paper will be of value to academics and industry practitioners interested in film tourism and indeed tourism in general as well as students studying the film tourism phenomenon. It also could benefit destination managers, academics, film and television stakeholders who have an interest in screen-tourism destination development.