The Twilight Effect, Post-Film Tourism and Diversification: the Future of Forks, WA
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The Twilight Effect, post-film tourism and diversification: the future of Forks, WA Daniel William Mackenzie Wright, David Jarratt and Emma Halford Abstract Daniel William Mackenzie Purpose – The visitor economy of Forks now clearly relies upon a niche form of tourism – as fans of The Twilight Wright is based at the Saga are drawn to the setting and filming location of the films. The purpose of this study is to consider the Division of Tourism, process of diversification and subsequently present recommendations that could inform a future diversification Hospitality and Events, strategy for Forks, in preparation for a post-film tourism scenario. University of Central – Design/methodology/approach The research methods employed in this study have two interlinked but Lancashire, Preston, UK. distinct elements. Firstly, the Twilight Effect in Forks (WA, USA) is considered as an illustrative case study to David Jarratt and shed light on the issues facing a destination that has seen a tourism boom as a direct result of popular culture – Emma Halford are both The Twilight Saga Franchise. Secondly, a scenario thinking and planning approach is applied when considering based at the University of the “long-view” future of tourism in Forks. Central Lancashire, Findings – This article presents a post-film tourism future scenario for Forks; it suggests tourism diversification and a shift towards cultural heritage and wellness. Forks is well placed to afford such tourism experiences, as it Preston, UK. offers unique cultural and natural characteristics; furthermore, these could be utilised to create and maintain a distinctive destination image. In doing so a more socially and environmentally sustainable industry can be established, one which supports the local community, including the Quileute tribe. Originality/value – The article offers original discussions within the film-tourism literature with novel approaches to understanding the management and pre-planning opportunities for destinations that have become popular film tourism locations, with the application of a “Tourism Diversification Model”. The model is adapted from Ansoff Matrix and can be applied as a framework in future studies exploring destination diversification. The investigation of Forks as a post-film tourism case study alone is unique, and the discussions and findings presented are original. Keywords Forks, Future scenario, Movie tourism, Post-film tourism, Tourism diversification, Twilight effect Paper type Research paper Introduction Received 29 July 2020 – Revised 16 November 2020 The Twilight Effect refers to the surge in literary and film tourism in Forks, Washington State USA, 23 April 2021 following the release of a series of books and subsequent films, The Twilight Saga. The Twilight Accepted 20 July 2021 Effect is considered in more detail later, suffice to say that Forks is the stage for a series of © Daniel William Mackenzie supernatural stories. Unusually, Forks, a remote logging town, was not only the real-world setting Wright, David Jarratt and Emma Halford. Published in Journal of for the fantasy books and movies but also the filming location for many of the key scenes. Film Tourism Futures. Published by tourism (also known as movie tourism) can include studio tours or visiting artificial attractions, but Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the the focus here is very much more towards the real locations, what Roesch (2009) refers to as film Creative Commons Attribution location tourism. (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate As with many popular film adaptions, fans are often, initially drawn in by the films first and then the and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial novels; for others, the opposite is true. Both books and films can be powerful motivators, especially and non-commercial purposes), when considering how tourists perceive the value of visiting a destination and they are now very subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. much linked to significant increases in visitor numbers (Larson et al., 2013; Beeton, 2016; Agarwal The full terms of this licence and Shaw, 2018). Rather than making a clear distinction between literary tourism and film tourism, may be seen at http:// creativecommons.org/licences/ we count them as feeding into the same phenomenon – tourism related to popular culture. This by/4.0/legalcode DOI 10.1108/JTF-07-2020-0115 VOL. ▪▪▪ NO. ▪▪▪ 2021, pp. 1-18, Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 2055-5911 j JOURNAL OF TOURISM FUTURES j PAGE 1 term is used to describe forms of entertainment that appear well-loved by many in society but may be considered unrefined by the social elite (Delaney, 2007; Storey, 2018). Regardless of how popular culture is perceived, it is arguably one of the most influential phenomena that can have an impact on society (Englehardt, 2017; Storey, 2018). However, the potentially short-lived nature of popular culture is important to consider, especially when destinations use it to brand themselves (O’Neill et al., 2005). Destinations relying on popular culture need to be prepared for the eventual decline in tourism. This can be referred to as post-film tourism when the original tourism boom, based around a popular culture theme, begins to decline. This article addresses this issue and in doing so, it offers original discussions within the film-tourism literature and considers potential solutions to a problem that seems increasingly likely to shape the futures of destinations that are left behind by this type of tourism. This problem will continue to be far more acute in locations that are not already popular tourist destinations or cultural centres before been made popular through popular culture. This article also offers novel approaches to understanding the management and pre-planning opportunities for destinations that have become popular film tourism locations, with the application of a “Tourism Diversification Model”. As noted by Heitmann (2010, p. 36), when discussing film- induced tourism, “planning has received only limited attention, as the subjects of studies so far focus more on marketing, image, and tourist experience” By applying a futures scenario approach as its methodology, this study explores how Forks can continue to draw in tourists when its film visitors begin to fade in numbers. For tourism to continue as a sustainable industry, diversification is likely to be a useful strategy, if not an essential one. The research methods employed in this study have two interlinked but distinct elements. Firstly, the Twilight Effect in Forks is considered as an illustrative case study to shed light on the issues facing a destination that has seen a tourism boom as a direct result of popular culture; a boom that raises obvious questions regarding economic sustainability. Forks is geographically remote with only a small tourism industry pre-Twilight and it is both a book setting and movie location. Therefore, it can be considered as an extreme case study which may shed light on the impact of a popular culture phenomenon on small film-tourism reliant destinations. Secondly, we consider a future alternative scenario for the tourism industry in Forks. Taking a scenario approach to research, the authors present a post-film tourism industry that could be potential future for Forks. The study applies and adapts the well-known Diversification Model by Ansoff (1957); which is not destination or tourism specific, unlike the version introduced in this article. It is hoped that this adapted model could be applied elsewhere and provide a framework to discuss post-film tourism. So, the (adapted) model itself offers original theoretical knowledge within the field of tourism and could be deployed and tested by destinations that are considering diversifying. This article also, through its findings, presents a scenario and practical solution in which the town of Forks diversifies to fend off an eventual decline in popularity. The recommendations are primarily rooted in the physical location of Forks – the natural environment and long-standing cultural heritage; elements which are so often major pull factors for visitors to destinations (Jafari, 1982). Films, movies and television series as popular culture tourism Schofield (1996, p. 334) suggested that television viewing is probably the greatest single domestic pastime. Today, it arguably remains high on people’s list of activities. According to Keegan (2021), reading and television ranked first and second respectively out of 27 most popular and common global hobbies. Travel and the increase in the global movement of tourist have played a significant role in the development of tourism-related stories. As noted by Hudson and Ritchie (2006, p. 387) “film tourism is a growing phenomenon worldwide, fuelled by both the growth of the entertainment industry and the increase in international travel”. According to data gathered by Stoll (2021) in 2019, the global television market showed that there were 1.7 billion pay-TV households worldwide. Today viewers can access digital content, once for cinema and television only, through a wide variety of on-demand viewing options. Lindlahr (2021) suggests that by 2025 the number of users in the Pay-per-View (TVoD) segment will be around 571 million globally. Thus, the power of PAGE 2 jJOURNAL OF TOURISM FUTURESj VOL. ▪▪▪ NO. ▪▪▪ 2021 digital content in reaching out to and influencing viewers cannot be underestimated. As noted by MacCannell (1976),