Bollywood, a Medium for Tourism Promotion

Abstract

The Appeal of Tourism destinations has to be maintained through regular tourism promotion. In the Past, emphasis was laid on more conventional methods of tourism promotion to lure tourists and to explain the attractiveness of destinations. The role of media has been greatly enhanced for the growth, development of tourist attractions and in creating positive images which need to be cemented in the minds of potential tourists. Bollywood is one of the biggest film industries in the world with a production of over 1000 films every year which are being watched by approximately 14 million people per day. Bollywood has an incredible mass appeal and is known to affect the lives of Indians, week in and week out. The choices of the Indian traveller and the Indian tourism industry have known to be influenced by many popular Bollywood movies as was seen after the release of Kashmir Ki Kali and Aaradhana, making Kashmir and Darjeeling one of the favoured romantic destinations of that time. This research paper will study the growth of visual media in the imaging process in terms of entertainment, films, as opposed to direct marketing. Through secondary research it will assess the strategies used by Destination Management Organizations (DMOs) to attract Bollywood directors to the destinations and will aim to evaluate the role of Movie induced tourism through Bollywood, to understand the allure that movies induce to make people travel to destinations portrayed in them. This research concerns both the supply and the demand side so it will be based on constructive ontology, which will assume that DMOs use Bollywood as a medium for promotion. Since this research will be Constructive in nature, it will be highly subjective and will not aim to provide any definitive realities. It will assume the realities of those interviewed. The population groups will be based on random sampling methods assuming that people of age 25-40 years are fascinated by movies and have jobs to support travel. An exploratory research will be carried out to gain new insights and discover new ideas about how Bollywood influences their travel activities.

Keywords: Bollywood and Tourism Industry, Tourism Marketing Strategies

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