Press release -
Scotland voted 'Best Cinematic Destination'
Scotland has been voted the world’s Best Cinematic Destination in an online poll run by one of America’s biggest newspapers.
VisitScotland has been urging film fans to vote for the country in USA Today’s 10Best Readers’ Choice awards, in which it beat Petra in Jordan (as seen in the climactic scenes of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade) and New Zealand (which features in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies) into second and third place respectively.
Scotland has featured in a number of high-profile movies in recent years, including the Harry Potter series (2001 to 2011); Skyfall, Prometheus and The Dark Knight Rises (all 2012); World War Z (2013); and the upcoming films Macbeth, starring Michael Fassbender, and Victor Frankenstein, starring James McAvoy and Daniel Radcliffe. Scotland also plays a starring role in the hit US television series Outlander, which is now being shown in the UK on Amazon Prime.
Malcolm Roughead, Chief Executive of VisitScotland, said: “This is a fantastic accolade for Scotland, which has beaten some of the world’s most iconic film locations to take this award. Given our country’s incredible and unique scenery, our range of spectacular buildings, as well as the warmth of our welcome, it is no wonder that it continues to attract some of the top film-makers from all over the world. Set-jetting, where people visit their favourite filming locations, is hugely popular and Scotland’s victory in this USA Today poll is further testimony to this country’s growing reputation as one of the world’s greatest film sets.”
For more information on Scotland’s film locations, go to: http://www.visitscotland.com/about/arts-culture/films/locations
To see the top ten, go to http://www.10best.com/awards/travel/best-cinematic-destination/
Topics
- Tourism
Categories
- film tourism
- corporate communications
Regions
- Scotland
Notes to Editors
- Follow us on twitter: @visitscotnews
- VisitScotland is Scotland’s national tourism organisation. Its core purpose is to maximise the economic benefit of tourism to Scotland.
- The organisation has three key roles:
- To market Scotland to all parts of the world to attract visitors
- To provide information – and inspiration – to visitors and potential visitors so they get the best out of a visit to Scotland
- To provide quality assurance to visitors and quality advice to the industry and partners to help the industry meet and strive to exceed customer expectations
- VisitScotland works together with tourism businesses to make tourism a success for everyone and ensure the industry continues to grow.
- The organisation employs 700 people and has offices and VisitScotland Information Centres across Scotland.
- According to a recent Deloitte study, the tourism economy supports 270,000 jobs in Scotland in 20,000 diverse businesses. The same study calculates that the tourism economy contributes £11 billion annually (direct and indirect impact, including day visits) and supports around 10 per cent of employment in Scotland. Almost 16 million tourists take overnight trips to Scotland.
- For VisitScotland’s press releases go to http://www.visitscotland.org/media_centre.aspx, tourism statistics and frequently asked questions go to http://www.visitscotland.org/
- Where possible, a Gaelic speaker will be made available for broadcast interviews on request (Far an tèid iarraidh, agus far am bheil sin nar comas, bruidhinnidh neach le Gàidhlig aig agallamh)
- For holiday information on Scotland go to www.visitscotland.com
- For information about business tourism in Scotland go to www.conventionscotland.com
Year of Food and Drink 2015
- 2015 is the Year of Food and Drink, a celebration of Scotland’s natural larder and the role that food and drink plays in shaping our economic success.
- Scotland generates over £2.5m per day through food and drink tourism.
- A series of themed months will create an appetite for key areas of Scotland’s food and drink industries – from seafood and whisky to berries and high-quality meat
- For more information, visit www.visitscotland.com/tastescotland
