A Journey through Middle Earth

The Lord of the Rings has been a big phenomenon, both literary and thanks to the films. This big production hadn’t gone unnoticed, especially in New Zealand, where all the movies where exclusively filmed. It is well known that New Zealand is a great tourist attraction thanks to their fantastic landscapes, but since these movies where launched his tourist attraction has incremented. 


In 2000, before the first film was released, the number of tourist that went to New Zealand for tourism was 1,7M. In 2004, after the three movies where launched, the number of tourist that went to New Zealand was 2,4M, and a huge part of them came to visit the natural sites where scenes of the film were taken. Not only the government has seen in the films a big opportunity to enrich itself, the number of companies that offer the possibility to make a tour through Middle Earth has increased significantly.

These companies offer the occasion of discover Middle Earth locations with guides, who many of them where extras in the movies. You can choose between different routes, more or less complete that can take between 2 and 13 days, adapting to what the client wants to see. Some of the wonderful places that you could discover are:

Waitomo caves: you can see astonishing stalactites and stalagmites while you are walking through the place where The Hobbit was filmed.
Hobbiton movie set: you’ll see The Shire, the picturesque site where hobbits live and where some movies where filmed. 
Edoras: a breathtaking area filled of lags and rivers, the capital of Rohan.
The river Anduin: you’ll enjoy a boat trip through the river. 
Rivendell: the magic and magnificent city settled by the elves.   

But this doesn’t end here. Recently it has been a new increase in New Zealand’s tourism thanks to the new film that brings us back to the charm of Middle Earth: The Hobbit. This increment has been such important that the NZ’s slogan gone from 100% New Zealand to 100% Middle Earth. In addition Wellington has been renamed temporally Middle Earth Center.

The existence of The Lord of the Rings and his influence in New Zealand’s tourism shows up the big power that something can have if you know how to take advantage of it. 

Beverly Hills Celebrity Homes

Los Angeles has been for many years a celebrity packed up city with many districts where celebrities are door-to-door neighbours and share the star struck lifestyle. In today’s society famous people are huge targets and are followed 24/7 by paparazzi who intend to show us the most juicy facts of celebrities. Many businesses have been created thanks to the fanaticism created around celebrities, for instance Madame Tussauds wax museum which we saw at the beginning of the blog. But what is the last celebrity related business?

A company named StarLine Tours saw a market gap to cover about 25 years ago: offering sightseeing tours in Los Angeles showing the outsides of celebrity and socialite’s homes, such as; Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley, Madonna, Jennifer Lopez, Tom Cruise, Nicholas Cage, Frank Sinatra and many more. The tour prices range from $44 if you wish to have a tour in a minibus with an audio guide and up to $2000 if you would like to have an exclusive experience in a limousine with a personal assistant as well as a visit to Rodeo Drive.

It is incredible how many more companies have joined and created their Celebrity Home Tours since then, creating a huge competition and pricing war. Tourists now have a wide range of tours available and may visit their celebrity’s homes from the outside getting to know all the gossip about them. Without any kind of doubt this is a recent business that has grown like foam in the past years and that is prosper since people are every time more and more interested on what celebrities are up to. The clear example is that now many other cities such as Miami, Malibu or New York offer this tours as well. 

Doctor Mateo - Lastres

Today we don’t even have to leave our country to get to the place we are visiting. We only have to go north, to Asturias. We recommend you a little town that became very famous because of the TV series Dr Mateo.

This beautiful and maritime town whose historical zone was declared cultural heritage has a white image with steep and narrow streets. The houses have two or three floors are made of white stone and there are a variety of facades with runners of wood, glass balconies or galleries.

The series’ arrival has made Lastres in San Martin del Sella a famous town and has increased tourism in the cider’s region. The house that Doctor Mateo used as the doctor’s practice was really the old doctor's house and was used for eventually consultation and as a laboratory.

The seaside town has many legends, it is said that in the entry of the sea there is a large flat rock called Llastra where the most beautiful sirens sang and because this story the town's name was born.

The impact of the series has been so strong that in the town we can even find Doctor Mateo’s route for people who want to know the locations of the series. This consists in visiting the different houses that appear in TV such as; the hairdressing, the city hall, the bar… guided by a map.

 

Another place that we can visit in Lastres is the lighthouse and we cannot forget the San Roque Chapel where we have spectacular views of the region.

It is very interesting to think about how a town so small and unknown becomes famous after filming a TV series there. Now all the businesses of the town are increasing their prices to make the most profit of all the tourism they are receiving. It’s without any kind of doubt the best moment for this small town, Dr. Mateo has made them famous and they are taking advantage from this! 

Star Wars

Today’s topic may be for many of you an extremely interesting subject, mainly because Star Wars has, since its beginnings, gathered millions of fans. What’s most interesting about Star Wars is that apart from being a pop culture phenomenon it was an enormous innovation in the realm of merchandising, becoming a huge business.

            Star Wars is an American epic space opera franchise involved on a film series created by George Lucas and produced by 20^th Century Fox. The first film was released on 1977 and was then followed due to its success by to more films becoming a trilogy. After 16 years a new prelude trilogy was released. Last year The Walt Disney Company acquired the rights to buy Lucasfilm and announced they would produce three new films, releasing the first one in 2015.  This is a clear example of how big the business has become and how it continues to obtain profits year after year.

            When it comes to numbers, Star Wars raised up to 5510 millions of dollars approximately within the 6 movies, becoming the third most successful movie of the history after James Bond and Harry Potter. Another important figure is that only the first movie gained up to 100 million dollars in only 3 months time and every year the Star Wars product produce up to 9000 millions of dollars around the world.

            The film series has generated a merchandising innovation it has launched a media franchise outside the film series called the Expanded Universe which includes absolutely any imaginable product; books, TV series, videogames, comics, clothes, role play games, busts, costumes, statues, toys, replica props, etc. Even the famous Lego Company has its Star Wars figures or the well-known Monopoly game created a special Star Wars board game and there even exists a Trivial based on Star Wars questions. Even Adidas created a shoe and clothes collection dedicated to the saga! If you would like to search for any product, definitely check out the following page: http://starwars.com/shop/ .

            But how is Star Wars related to tourism? The famous Tatooine village is indeed in the South of Tunisia in a place known as Matmata where you can easily recognize many of the amazing places where Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker left their mark. You can either go on a tour of the main Star Wars sets such as the amazing Sidi Bouhlel Canyon where R2D2 was captured by the Jwas or the Chott El Jerid lake where they also filmed many film exterior and even visit the underground houses where the Lars lived. A handful of families continue to dwell in these subterranean houses, others are abandoned and some even have been recycling business as unusual as the Hotel Sidi Driss, whose guests do night like a true Jedi, in fact, the hotel became the house of the Lars where Luke Skywalker grew up.

All of this amazing insights take the traveller not only to the most famous film sagas of all time scenarios but also lets them encounter with spectacular landscapes and an amazing culture.

           

It is truly amazing the huge business that has raised from the film sagas not only in terms of merchandising but also in tourism since many tourists visit the south of Tunisia and are definitely interested to visit the film sets due to its amazing history and Star Wars magnetism. 

Follow us on our next blog post, really soon! 

Artists Homes

Today we are going to take a look to different houses of all times artists that actually attract lots of tourism. It’s actually a more cultural kind of tourism since artist homes are mainly visited by people who are interested in the person’s life and their work, however, it’s still a strong business with a long future.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

We are going to start with Shakespeare probably the most famous classic artist.

The amazing writer, poet and actor William Shakespeare was born in a typical wood house from the XVI century. It is set in a little town on the heart of England, Warwickshire. Nowadays it is a little museum opened for everybody. The dramaturge lovers or writers usually visit it and are captured by the essence of Shakespeare and it’s love to the arts.

More than one million tourists visit this museum every year.

REMBRANDT

Now it’s time to talk about Rembrandt whose house we can find in Amsterdam. The painter bought this house in his best years for a price of 30.000 guilders. A few years later he had financial problems and was forced to auction the house. Rembrant had then to move to a smaller house. Grace to the auction, today we can visit the house and see how Rembrant lived in his best years.

The museum was inaugurated in 1911. The most important room that can be visited is where he painted his artworks. Also we can visit the kitchen and other rooms, one of them where we can even find some objects that he used for some of his paintings.

 The prices are the following:

Adults:10€

Students:7€

Children from 6-17 years old: 3€

Younger than 5 years old: Free

The visit includes an audio explication which helps you discover the curiosities of each room.

SHERLOCK HOLMES

Let’s talk about the most important detective of London; Sherlock Holmes. We can find this house-museum in Baker Street that was inaugurated in 1990.

As the novelist Sir Arthur Conan Doyle said this was the home of the characters Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson and Miss Hudson (the lady of keys).

The museum is divided in threee floors:

The first floor is the most important one, because it is where we can find the detective room and the office where he and his collegue worked. Up in the second floor we can find Watson’s and Miss Hudson’s rooms. There we can also see all of their belogings as if in any moment they had to appear. Last but not least, the third floor is the one ocupated by the most important character, Sherlock, who appeares as a wax figure.

It is really interesting to visit this museum because every detail is perfectly represented and you can feel the suspens of Sherlock with you.

The prices are;

Adults: 6€

Less than 16 years old:4€

It is incredible how a business can be born  from an artist that years ago produced master pieces or even a fiction character created by a writer. All this characters are known arround the world and only with their name, a house can get a different purpose like for example become a museum and consequently obtain a profit from this.

Can you imagine that Shakespeare or Rembrandt could see that their houses are visited by thousands of tourists every year?