An Insight of How the Use of Film/TV and Involvement of Celebrity in Affecting Tourists Travel Decisions to Hong Kong

Hong Kong is one of the world’s most popular tourist destinations; it achieved the ninth world highest tourist receipts in 2010. Hong Kong, also known as “East Hollywood” has nutured many popular actors such as Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan, while its movies and dramas have been successfully attracted international audience. This research paper combines HK film success with the phenomenon “Film Induced Tourism (FIT)” – an inducement effect that attracts viewers to film scenes as tourists. While the world recognises such effect, it actually differs between destinations. The research included the following objectives: To test the popularity of HK films and celebrities; To identify the FIT target market for HK; To identify the level of inducement effect for HK film, and if it differs between tourists’ nationals; To provide suggestions for HK Tourism Board to generate appeals through seizing the FIT opportunity. Research results highlighted that HK film indeed is well-known to participants from different nations. HK celebrity is a major factor which creates the level of interest for viewers to conduct further research. Participants within the East Asia region that shares a high degree of cultural proximity tend to be the potential film-induced tourists. The film inducement effect is applicable across gender and regardless of the number of previous visits