من ” تأثير اللوتس الأبيض ” و” سياحة أوتلاندر ” إلى مسلسل البوب الكوري ” هبوط اضطراري للحب ” الذي ألهم الكثيرين للسفر إلى سويسرا، أصبحت الشاشة بمثابة وكيل سفر مؤثر للغاية. وهذا يعني بشكل متزايد أن المسافرين لا يكتفون بحجز إجازاتهم فحسب، بل يحجزون رحلات إلى الأماكن التي سحرتهم من أول نظرة على الشاشة.
سواءً أكان الأمر يتعلق بعشاق مسلسل “إميلي في باريس” الذين يسعون لعيش تجربة مشابهة لتجربة إميلي في باريس ، أو بمحبي مسلسل “المنافسة الشرسة” الذين يحاولون حجز الكوخ الحقيقي من المسلسل، فإن التأثير واضحٌ جليّ. حتى فيلم كريستوفر نولان ” الأوديسة” ، الذي لم يُعرض بعد ، يُثير بالفعل اهتمامًا بمواقع تصويره في شبه جزيرة بيلوبونيز باليونان. وكما تقول كاثي ويتلوك، مؤلفة كتاب ” في الموقع: رحلات سينمائية إلى أشهر مواقع تصوير الأفلام في العالم ” (دار كوارتو للنشر)، “يرغب الناس في الانغماس في أحداث القصة. فالأفلام والمسلسلات لا تكتفي بعرض المواقع فحسب، بل تُضفي عليها طابعًا أسطوريًا. غالبًا ما نسافر ليس فقط لرؤية مكان ما، بل لنعيش النسخة التي تخيلتها السينما لنا في البداية.”
التأثير حقيقي. فبحسب موقع إكسبيديا، من المتوقع أن تصل قيمة صناعة السفر إلى مواقع تصوير الأفلام – أو ما يُعرف بالسفر المتأثر بهوليوود – إلى 8 مليارات دولار في الولايات المتحدة. ويقول 81% من المسافرين من جيل الألفية وجيل زد إنهم يخططون لرحلاتهم بناءً على ما شاهدوه على الشاشة، بينما يقول 53% منهم إن رغبتهم في القيام برحلة مماثلة قد ازدادت. ويقول نيكي كلفن، من موقع “ذا بوينتس جاي” للسفر: “الناس يبحثون عن القصص والمشاعر، وكل شيء أصبح أكثر واقعية وسهولة في الوصول إليه”.
لاحظت الاستوديوهات ومنصات البث هذا الأمر. تقول تيريزا كانغ، الرئيسة التنفيذية ومؤسسة شركتي بلو ماربل بيكتشرز وبلو ماربل مانجمنت: “تسعى إنتاجات الأفلام والمسلسلات التلفزيونية الآن إلى تبني أساليب بصرية مختلفة. وسنشهد المزيد من الإنتاجات التي تستخدم مواقع التصوير كوسيلة لجذب الجماهير بطريقة ملهمة”.
رغم ازدهار ظاهرة السفر إلى مواقع تصوير الأفلام والمسلسلات، إلا أنها ليست ظاهرة جديدة. وكما توضح قائمة مجلة هوليوود ريبورتر لأفضل 100 وجهة سياحية اشتهرت بفضل الأفلام والمسلسلات، فإن هذا التأثير يعود إلى أفلام كلاسيكية مثل ” عطلة رومانية” و “الحياة الحلوة” و ” هاواي الزرقاء” و “صوت الموسيقى” . بعبارة أخرى، كان هذا التوجه يتطور تدريجياً على مدى فترة طويلة.
نُشرت هذه القصة في عدد السفر لعام 2026 من مجلة هوليوود ريبورتر . انقر هنا لقراءة المزيد.
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أميلي (2001)
مصدر الصورة: إريك فيفربيرغ/وكالة فرانس برس عبر غيتي إيميجز مقهى دو مولان (باريس)
في زاوية شارع ليبك رقم 15 في مونمارتر، يقع هذا المقهى ذو المظلات الحمراء الزاهية، حيث عملت بطلة الفيلم الكوميدي الرومانسي، أميلي بولان، كنادلة خجولة وغريبة الأطوار. ومنذ ذلك الحين، أصبح هذا المقهى وجهةً مفضلةً للسياح الباحثين عن “مقهى أميلي”.
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وخلق الله المرأة (1956)


Image Credit: John Springer Collection / Contributor Pampelonne Beach (Saint-Tropez, France)
Frolicking on Pampelonne Beach in And God Created Woman, Brigitte Bardot helped propel Saint-Tropez from a sleepy fishing village into one of the world’s most famous luxury playgrounds. Bardot also helped launch one of the world’s best-known restaurants after asking a local couple, the de Colmonts, to cater for the film’s cast and crew. They went on to open Le Club 55 on Pampelonne, which over the decades has drawn guests including Alain Delon, Princess Diana, Leonardo DiCaprio and Beyoncé.
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The Bachelor (2002) and The Bachelorette (2003)


Image Credit: John Fleenor/ABC via Getty Images Villa de la Vina (Agoura Hills, California)
For more than two decades, the Bachelor Mansion has served as the backdrop for some of reality TV’s most recognizable rituals — limo arrivals, rose ceremonies and dramatic engagements watched by millions each week. The 10,000-square-foot estate in Agoura Hills, known as Villa de la Vina, is privately owned but has become a drive-by landmark for fans. But the real set-jetting happens beyond the mansion’s gates. Each season whisks contestants to far-flung destinations — from Fiji and Thailand to Iceland, South Africa and the Maldives — each showcased like a glossy travel reel that often translates into real-world bookings long after the final rose is handed out.
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The Beach (2000)


Image Credit: Photo by Carola Frentzen/picture alliance via Getty Images Maya Bay (Ko Phi Phi Leh, Thailand)
After appearing in Leonardo DiCaprio’s adventure drama The Beach, Maya Bay in Thailand’s Phi Phi islands lured swarms of tourists eager to experience the crescent-shaped paradise captured onscreen. It soon became a poster child for the costs of overtourism. In 2018, with roughly 5,000 to 6,000 travelers arriving daily, Thai officials closed the area to allow the ecosystem to recover. It reopened four years later with stricter limits, including a ban on swimming to protect the coral reef and resident blacktip reef sharks.
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The Bear (2022)


Image Credit: Chicago Tribune/Getty Images Mr. Beef (Chicago)
No-frills and known for one of the city’s most iconic sandwiches, Mr. Beef on Orleans Street in Chicago’s River North neighborhood inspired the fictional shop at the center of The Bear and appears in the series’ exterior shots. Following the show’s breakout success, the family-run stand saw business more than double, with daily sandwich sales jumping from roughly 300 to more than 800. The surge has turned the longtime local favorite into a cult destination, with lines stretching down the block from open to close.
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Before Sunrise (1995)


Image Credit: Eye Ubiquitous/Universal Images Group via Getty Images Café Sperl (Vienna)
The charm of Before Sunrise lies in its focus on walking, talking and experiencing a city over the course of a single night. After meeting serendipitously, Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Céline (Julie Delpy) spend time at Vienna’s Café Sperl, a traditional Austrian café established in 1880 and steeped in Old World Viennese allure. The café serves as the setting for a memorable scene in which the characters play-act making phone calls. In the decades since the film’s release, it has developed a passionate cult following, and Vienna continues to attract travelers eager to experience its romantic backdrop. Other defining locations featured in Before Sunrise include Zollamtssteg Bridge, Alt & Neu Records and the Viennese Giant Ferris Wheel.
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Big Little Lies (2017)


Image Credit: Adobe Stock Lovers Point Park (Pacific Grove) and Bixby Bridge (Big Sur, California)
Big Little Lies brought a new wave of attention to California’s coastal havens of Pacific Grove and Big Sur. Visitors seek out Lovers Point Park in Pacific Grove, the site of the show’s Blissful Drip Café, as well as Big Sur’s famous Bixby Bridge, which appears in the opening credits.
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Blue Hawaii (1961)


Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection Coco Palms Resort (Wailua, Kauai) and Waikiki Beach (Oahu, Hawaii)
Two years after Hawaii became a state, Elvis’ Blue Hawaii — the 10th-highest-grossing film of 1961 — helped popularize the islands as an irresistible tropical paradise. Filming took place on Oahu at Waikiki Beach and on Kauai at Coco Palms Resort, where Elvis’ Chad Gates gets married in the film’s finale. The resort, which had previously been featured in the 1953 Rita Hayworth film Miss Sadie Thompson, was destroyed by Hurricane Iniki in 1992. Plans to redevelop the property have yet to come to fruition.
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Braveheart (1995)


Image Credit: Eye Ubiquitous/Universal Images Group via Getty Images Trim Castle (County Meath, Ireland)
Though set in Scotland, Mel Gibson’s Academy Award-winning epic was filmed largely in Ireland, putting historic sites like Trim Castle on vivid display. Today, fans of the film continue to visit the 12th century landmark in hopes of stepping, however briefly, into the world portrayed onscreen.
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Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961)


Image Credit: Photo by CBS via Getty Images Tiffany & Co., Fifth Avenue (New York City)
Women in little black dresses still follow the stylish template set by Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and visitors to New York continue to flock to the Tiffany & Co. flagship on Fifth Avenue and 57th Street, where Holly Golightly famously paused with coffee and a pastry to admire the window displays. The film later inspired the opening of the Tiffany Blue Box Café in 2017, where visitors can actually have breakfast and pastries like Holly. Some superfans still arrive dressed as her, photographer in tow, to pose in front of the windows. In February 2026, it was announced that Lily Collins is set to follow in Hepburn’s footsteps in a film about the making of the original.
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Breaking Bad (2008)


Image Credit: Courtesy Twisters Burgers and Burritos (Albuquerque, New Mexico)
More than a decade after Walter White’s last stand, Albuquerque remains a pilgrimage site for Breaking Bad devotees, with many fans heading to the Isleta Boulevard location of the Twisters chain, which played Gus Fring’s Los Pollos Hermanos. Other stops on the Breaking Bad itinerary include the Mister Car Wash on Snow White Circle, which doubled as A1A Car Wash; the Crossroads Motel, which played the Crystal Palace; and even the actual residence used as Walter White’s house — though it is privately owned, so visitors are urged to be respectful.
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Bridgerton (2020)


Image Credit: Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images Royal Crescent (Bath, England)
The “Bridgerton effect” has made its mark in the U.K. and beyond, influencing fashion, lifestyle, design and travel trends. One of the show’s most recognizable locations is Royal Crescent in Bath, a nearly 500-foot row of Georgian houses where the fictional Featherington family lives, at No. 1 Royal Crescent. Bridgerton fans have descended on Bath for hotel stays, afternoon teas and walking tours in search of Regency-era vibes.
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Call Me by Your Name (2017)


Image Credit: Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics Piazza del Duomo (Crema, Italy)
Set in 1983, the coming-of-age romance dreamily evokes the allure of northern Italy’s Lombardy region. Signature scenes were filmed around the town of Crema, including in Piazza del Duomo, in front of Crema Cathedral, where Elio (Timothée Chalamet) and Oliver (Armie Hammer) sit at a café. Following the film’s release, tourism reportedly increased in Crema, as well as in nearby Bergamo and Moscazzano, where a private villa served as the Perlman family’s home.
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Chungking Express (1994)


Image Credit: Bob Henry/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images Chungking Mansions (Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong)
Wong Kar-wai’s Chungking Express captures Hong Kong’s underbelly through a dizzying, stylish lens, and Chungking Mansions sits at the center of it. The 17-story complex, originally planned as a residential building, evolved into a hub of tiny hotel rooms, food stalls, shops and maze-like corridors. Wong himself described it as a “mass-populated and hyperactive place that served as a metaphor for Hong Kong itself.” For fans of the cult favorite, visiting the gritty block of buildings can feel like a pilgrimage.
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Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)


Image Credit: Photo by Harvey Meston/Archive Photos/Getty Images Devils Tower (Wyoming)
Towering over the Belle Fourche River Valley in northeastern Wyoming, the 1,267-foot Devils Tower National Monument became a pop-culture icon after serving as the extraterrestrial landing pad in the final act of Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Its striking vertical columns and otherworldly silhouette continue to draw a steady stream of hikers, climbers and sci-fi devotees to the Black Hills.
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Crash Landing on You (2019)


Image Credit: Photo by FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images Iseltwald Pier (Bern, Switzerland)
The South Korean rom-com, which took the world by storm in 2019, follows an heiress who accidentally paraglides into North Korea and falls in love with a military officer. Its Swiss scenes put a spotlight on Iseltwald, a tiny village on Lake Brienz with roughly 400 residents. After tourists descended on the town, a turnstile was installed in 2023 at the dock where Ri Jeong-hyeok is seen playing the piano; visitors now pay an entry fee of 5 Swiss francs.
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Crazy Rich Asians (2018)


Image Credit: Courtesy Marina Bay Sands Marina Bay Sands (Singapore)
This major filming location for the romantic comedy was already a landmark in Singapore. Its fame rose to another level after the film’s release, with an uptick in searches, social media mentions and bookings. The 57-story, triple-tower resort with 1,850 rooms is home to the world’s largest rooftop infinity pool and served as the setting for the film’s final engagement scene.
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Dallas (1978)


Image Credit: Photo by CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images Southfork Ranch (Parker, Texas)
Over 13 seasons, Southfork Ranch’s white-painted exteriors played the legendary home of the Ewing family on Dallas. The show’s “Who Shot J.R.?” episode still ranks among the most watched TV episodes ever. In 1984, Southfork drew 1 million tourists, surpassing the Alamo’s visitor count that year. Built in 1970 by Joe Duncan, who called the estate Duncan Acres, the ranch was sold in 1985 and evolved into the conference and events center it is today. It is open daily for tours, where guests can eat at Miss Ellie’s Deli and see Jock Ewing’s 1978 Lincoln Continental. The ranch even offers an overnight package for fans who want to “Live and Dream Like a Ewing.”
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The Dark Knight Rises (2012)


Image Credit: Adobe Stock Wollaton Hall (Nottingham, England)
This majestic Elizabethan hilltop mansion, built between 1580 and 1588, is best known as the façade of Wayne Manor in the final installment of Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy. Following the film’s release, the site — now operated as a museum by Nottingham City Council — became a popular destination for fans, drawing more than 100,000 additional visitors in 2014, two years after the movie opened.
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Downton Abbey (2010)


Image Credit: David Goddard/Getty Images Highclere Castle (Highclere, England)
Set on a 5,000-acre estate, Highclere Castle was as much a character on Downton Abbey as any member of the Crawley family. The grand Victorian mansion, which served as the family’s home through six seasons and three films, fit the bill perfectly. “We wanted a house that was majestic and projected the authority of the aristocracy in its era,” producer Gareth Neame told Elle Decor last year. The castle is open to the public for tours, and tickets generally sell out months in advance. Since 2014, Viking Cruises has offered packages that include special access to the estate.
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Dr. No (1962)


Image Credit: Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images Laughing Waters Beach (near Ocho Rios, Jamaica)
This oasis of tranquil waters and soft sand achieved worldwide renown after Ursula Andress emerged from the sea there in Dr. No, the first film in the James Bond series. Bond devotees have been drawn to this Jamaican strand ever since. About a 30-minute drive east lies GoldenEye, the estate — now a resort — where Ian Fleming wrote all 14 of his Bond novels, making Jamaica the spiritual home of the franchise.
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Dune (2021)


Image Credit: Ekkachai Pholrojpanya/Getty Images Wadi Rum (Jordan)
This valley of rusty-orange sand and sandstone mountains served as the backdrop for many of the Arrakis scenes in both Dune (2021) and Dune: Part Two (2024). Dubbed “Hollywood’s Desert,” the Wadi Rum Protected Area, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, has also appeared in Lawrence of Arabia, Prometheus, The Martian and the live-action Aladdin. The Jordan Tourism Board has said international productions drove a 20 percent surge in tourist arrivals between 2017 and 2023. The Dune films also shot sand-dune scenes in Abu Dhabi’s Liwa Desert, where the cast and crew stayed at Qasr Al Sarab Desert Resort by Anantara. Abu Dhabi’s desert landscape will appear again in Dune: Part 3 when it is released later this year.
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Eat Pray Love (2010)


Image Credit: Photo by DeAgostini/Getty Images Tegallalang Rice Terraces (Ubud, Bali, Indonesia)
Eat Pray Love’s three-part journey of self-discovery unfolds across Italy, India and Indonesia. In the “Love” chapter, Bali’s scenic Tegallalang Rice Terraces appear in the scene in which Liz, played by Julia Roberts, rides her bike along a winding path. The lush, layered rice fields sit about 30 minutes north of the town of Ubud and were once a quieter, more off-the-beaten-path destination. Since the film’s release, the area has seen intense tourism traffic from travelers seeking the spiritual, wellness-oriented and self-discovery experiences portrayed in the story.
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Emily in Paris (2020)


Image Credit: Photo by Edward Berthelot/Getty Images Place de l’Estrapade (Paris)
Just when it seemed Paris couldn’t be any more idealized, Netflix’s Emily in Paris arrived in 2020 and ushered in a fresh wave of tourists. According to a 2024 study by market research firm Ifop Group, 10 percent of visitors to Paris traveled because of a film or television series, and of those, 38 percent cited Emily in Paris as the reason. Emily’s apartment at 1 Place de l’Estrapade now draws a steady stream of photo-taking fans, while Italian eatery Terra Nera — which plays Gabriel’s restaurant on the show — has more than 200 Google reviews referencing the series. In December 2025, French President Emmanuel Macron awarded creator Darren Star the Legion of Honor, praising him for making “France shine across the world.”
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The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006)


Image Credit: Photo by Clive Rose/Gran Turismo via Getty Images Shibuya Crossing (Tokyo)
What happens when you shoot an adrenaline-pumping street-racing scene at one of the busiest crossings in the world without a permit? You get one of the most iconic drifting shots in the Fast & Furious franchise. In Tokyo Drift, the filmmakers were determined to capture the raw energy of Tokyo’s underground street-racing culture, but securing a permit for Shibuya Crossing proved impossible. The scene was filmed guerrilla-style, helping cement the intersection’s place in franchise lore and turning it into a must-see site for fans. Illuminated by billboards, some of them in 3D, Shibuya Crossing sees up to 3,000 pedestrians during a single green-light cycle.
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Forrest Gump (1994)


Image Credit: © Paramount Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection Chippewa Square (Savannah, Georgia)
In Robert Zemeckis’ best picture winner, Forrest Gump tells his life story from a bus-stop bench in Savannah’s Chippewa Square. Although the bench itself was a movie prop — one of them now resides in the Savannah History Museum — the square still attracts thousands of visitors who come to see the site of the famous “Life is like a box of chocolates” monologue.
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From Here to Eternity (1953)


Image Credit: Photo by Screen Archives/Getty Images Halona Beach Cove (Oahu, Hawaii)
Often called “Eternity Beach,” Halona Beach Cove earned its nickname from From Here to Eternity, in which Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr’s kiss in the surf — waves crashing over them as they embrace on the sand — became one of cinema’s most enduring images. Located just off the Kalanianaʻole Highway, the cove is known for its seclusion, dramatic lava-rock formations and the nearby Halona Blowhole. More than seven decades later, it remains a beloved stop for film fans and travelers, many of whom come to re-create that iconic moment on its shore.
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Frozen (2013)


Image Credit: Adobe Stock Akershus Fortress (Oslo, Norway)
Disney’s Frozen ignited a wave of interest in Norway, the country that heavily inspired the animated hit, from its fjord region to the city of Bergen and the northern reaches where the aurora borealis paints the sky. In Oslo, the medieval Akershus Fortress helped inspire Arendelle Castle, with details in its design echoed in the film. Bergen, meanwhile, served as a visual reference for Arendelle’s harbor town. After the movie’s release, travel to Norway from the United States jumped 37 percent in the first quarter of 2014 compared with the same period in 2013, according to Innovation Norway.
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Game of Thrones (2011)


Image Credit: Photo by DeAgostini/Getty Images Old Town (Dubrovnik, Croatia)
Die-hard Game of Thrones fans have flocked around the world to visit the HBO epic’s filming locations, from Iceland and Spain to Northern Ireland and Morocco. But the most distinctive may be Dubrovnik’s red-roofed Old Town, which stood in for King’s Landing. After tourism surged — complete with Game of Thrones-specific walking tours — the city began strictly enforcing a limit of 8,000 people in Old Town at one time in 2017.
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Gidget (1959)


Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection (Malibu, California)
When Sandra Dee’s Gidget caught her first wave, she did not just become a cultural phenomenon — she helped launch an entire genre. One of the earliest beach-party movies, Gidget sparked a 1960s obsession with Southern California surf culture that swept across America, turning longboards, beach bonfires and sun-bleached shores into defining icons of the California dream. Malibu’s 21-mile stretch of coastline has been a favorite of Hollywood ever since, with Pamela Anderson taking up the mantle in Baywatch and Keanu Reeves riding its waves in Point Break.
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Gladiator (2000) and Gladiator II (2024)


Image Credit: Photo by: Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images Fort Ricasoli (Kalkara, Malta)
Malta stood in for Rome in both the original Gladiator and its 2024 sequel. For each film, a life-size reconstruction of the Colosseum was built inside Fort Ricasoli, a vast fortification on the island’s Grand Harbour constructed by the Knights of Malta between 1670 and 1698. Even before the second film opened, a Screen Malta-organized tour of the set drew 33,000 visitors in January 2024. The fort has also appeared in Game of Thrones, Cutthroat Island, Troy and Napoleon.
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Gossip Girl (2007)


Image Credit: Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty Images The Metropolitan Museum of Art Steps (New York City)
Any true Gossip Girl devotee knows the Met steps as Blair Waldorf’s lunchtime office, where Queen B and her minions sat, schemed and ruled the Upper East Side — turning a staircase into one of television’s most iconic backdrops and cementing the neighborhood’s image as a glossy playground for Manhattan’s privileged youth. But the show’s footprint extended well beyond the UES. The Empire Hotel, where Chuck Bass held court, still offers Gossip Girl-themed experiences on its rooftop nearly two decades later. The scandalous lives of Manhattan’s elite also played out at the Lotte New York Palace, Bethesda Terrace in Central Park and Grand Central Terminal.
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The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)


Image Credit: Photo by Robert Michael/Picture Alliance via Getty Images Görlitzer Warenhaus (Görlitz, Germany)
Wes Anderson’s Oscar-winning comedy, centered on a concierge at a fictional European ski resort and his protégé, took primary design inspiration from the colorful Czech spa town of Karlovy Vary and its 288-room Grandhotel Pupp. Much of the actual filming took place in the small German town of Görlitz, where the vacant art nouveau Görlitz Department Store provided the perfect setting for the movie’s grand lobby and other hotel interiors. Since the film’s release, Görlitz has seen an influx of visitors drawn by its picturesque streets and Anderson connection, with local businesses now offering guided tours of the filming locations.
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Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001)


Image Credit: Photo by John Wreford/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images King’s Cross Station (London)
Muggles can’t actually board the train to Hogwarts, but they can visit the storied Platform 9¾ at King’s Cross Station, one of the most famous landmarks from the beloved franchise. Harry Potter fans from around the world arrive in droves, forming daily lines for photos with the permanent half-trolley embedded in the wall. The site draws more than 2 million visitors a year. Other notable filming locations across the U.K. include Northumberland’s Alnwick Castle, which stood in for Hogwarts in the first two films, and Victoria Street in Edinburgh, widely believed to have inspired Diagon Alley.
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Heated Rivalry (2025)


Image Credit: Courtesy Airbnb Barlochan Cottage (Muskoka Lakes, Canada)
Before the steamy romance Heated Rivalry became a global phenomenon in late 2025, Ontario’s Muskoka region — home to some 1,600 lakes — was already known as the Hamptons of the North, luring celebrity visitors including Justin Bieber, the Beckhams, Tom Hanks and Mark Wahlberg. Now, the area has become known to a global TV audience as well. In February, Airbnb reported that searches for properties in Muskoka were up 40 percent after the late-December finale, which was filmed at the real-life Barlochan Cottage, a three-bedroom glass-and-timber home. It became available to book on Airbnb in March, with a launch rate of $248.10 Canadian a night — a wink to the numbers on the characters’ jerseys. “I’m coming to the cottage” just became a reality.
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The Holiday (2006)


Image Credit: ©Columbia Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection Shere (Surrey, England)
The storybook village of Shere in Surrey became widely known after appearing in The Holiday, the romantic comedy starring Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet, in which two heartbroken women swap homes — one a Los Angeles mansion, the other a quaint English cottage. The cottage where Amanda, played by Diaz, stayed was a film set, but fans still visit the town to revel in its cottagecore charm and stop by The White Horse pub, the setting for Amanda and Graham’s (Jude Law) first date.
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Home Alone 2 (1992)


Image Credit: The Plaza, A Fairmont Managed Hotel, August Twenty Eight The Plaza Hotel (New York City)
More than three decades after its release, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York still ranks among the highest-grossing Christmas films of all time, and The Plaza Hotel — where Kevin checks in and crosses paths with then-owner Donald Trump in a brief cameo (later cut from a CBC airing, prompting Trump to complain that “the movie will never be the same”) — has fully embraced its legacy. The hotel’s “Home Alone: Fun in New York” package begins with a four-hour private limousine ride with stops at sites from the film, including the Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center, Central Park, Carnegie Hall and Radio City Music Hall — plus a cheese pizza en route. Back at the hotel, guests are treated to an over-the-top, 16-scoop ice cream sundae delivered via room service, recreating Kevin’s legendary suite life. The package runs $3,250 per night, with demand surging each holiday season.
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House of the Dragon (2022)


Image Credit: Adobe Stock Monsanto Village (Beira Baixa, Portugal)
This hilltop village — named the “Most Portuguese Village in Portugal” in a government-sponsored 1938 competition — gained international visibility when it played Dragonstone, the ancestral home of House Targaryen, in the HBO series. Local tours now reference Dragonstone by name, inviting visitors to explore the town’s narrow cobblestone lanes, homes wedged between giant boulders and the remains of a 12th century Templar castle.
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The Hunger Games (2012)


Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons Henry River Mill Village (Hickory, North Carolina)
Abandoned since the 1970s, Henry River Mill Village in the North Carolina foothills offered the perfect setting for The Hunger Games’ District 12, the bleak, coal-dusted enclave Katniss Everdeen called home. The derelict textile-mill village — about an hour east of Asheville — was essentially a ready-made set, requiring almost no dressing. Today, the village offers guided tours of filming locations, including the old company store, which doubled as the Mellark family bakery. Fans looking for a more immersive experience can even stay overnight in House No. 12, a restored 1905 mill cottage. “People come for The Hunger Games, but they stay for the history,” village owner Calvin Reyes, who purchased the property in 2017, told The Associated Press.
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In Bruges (2008)


Image Credit: ©Focus Features/Courtesy Everett Collection Markt Square (Bruges, Belgium)
Ironically, one of the most effective tourism campaigns Belgium has ever had came from a film whose lead character, played by Colin Farrell, openly despises Bruges. In Bruges left a lasting impression on audiences and piqued curiosity about the medieval canal city, known for its cobblestone streets, gothic architecture and fairy-tale waterways. Markt Square sits at the city’s heart, lined with colorful, centuries-old buildings and the towering Belfry of Bruges, a 272-foot UNESCO World Heritage Site with 366 steps that serves as the backdrop for the film’s chase scene. Ahead of the release, the city prepared for the influx by producing 3,000 special tourist maps marking every shooting location. The film’s impact speaks for itself: In 2008, Bruges had 3 million visitors. In 2023, more than 8.3 million people visited the city of fewer than 120,000 residents.
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Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)


Image Credit: Photo by Salah Malkawi/Getty Images Al Khazneh (Petra, Jordan)
The stunning rock-cut building Al Khazneh (“The Treasury” in Arabic) in Petra was built by the Nabataeans in the first century. It gained cinematic fame in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, in which it was depicted as the temple housing the Holy Grail, planting Petra firmly in the tourism imagination. In 2024, a tomb beneath the Treasury was excavated, and archaeologists made a remarkable discovery: 12 skeletons, along with a ceramic vessel that reportedly bore a resemblance to the Holy Grail prop seen in the movie. Last year, more than 582,000 people visited Petra, and tourism accounts for nearly 20 percent of Jordan’s GDP.
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Interstellar (2014)


Image Credit: Photo by: Loop Images/Mark Bauer/Universal Images Group via Getty Images Svínafellsjökull Glacier (Vatnajökull, Iceland)
The icy, desolate planet of Dr. Mann was shot on Iceland’s otherworldly-looking Svínafellsjökull Glacier (“Pig Hill Glacier”), part of the greater Vatnajökull ice cap, which covers about 8 percent of the country. In 2018, cracks were detected in the mountain above Svínafellsjökull, and activities directly on the glacier were closed for safety. Today, visitors can still experience the glacial terrain through guided walks in safer surrounding areas or on nearby glaciers. The glacier — which is melting and rapidly retreating because of climate change — has also appeared in Batman Begins and Game of Thrones, which filmed numerous “North of the Wall” scenes there.
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Jaws (1975)
![Jaws Martha's Vineyard, MA - 1975: (L-R) [unidentified], Director Steven Spielberg, camera operator Michael Chapman and cinematographer Bill Butler on the set of the Universal Pictures production of Jaws in 1975 in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/wp-content/themes/vip/pmc-hollywoodreporter-2021/assets/public/lazyload-fallback.gif)
![Jaws Martha's Vineyard, MA - 1975: (L-R) [unidentified], Director Steven Spielberg, camera operator Michael Chapman and cinematographer Bill Butler on the set of the Universal Pictures production of Jaws in 1975 in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/GettyImages-115992160_w.jpg?w=1500)
Image Credit: Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images American Legion Memorial Bridge (Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts)
Steven Spielberg’s Jaws transformed idyllic Martha’s Vineyard into terror-stricken Amity Island, and more than 50 years later, the island shows no signs of shaking the association. The American Legion Memorial Bridge, known to locals and fans alike as “Jaws bridge,” remains the island’s most visited film landmark. To this day, visitors leap into the waters below as an unofficial summer rite of passage.
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Jurassic Park (1993)


Image Credit: Photo by Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images Kualoa Ranch (Oahu, Hawaii)
Set on a 4,000-acre private nature reserve and working cattle ranch on Oahu, Kualoa Ranch is one of the most recognizable backdrops in the Jurassic Park franchise. While many of the original film’s lush jungle landscapes were captured on Kauai, key scenes were filmed at Kualoa, which has since become a magnet for fans. “Our top search terms on all the search engines are always Jurassic Hawaii, Jurassic Oahu,” Frank Among, director of sales and marketing at Kualoa Ranch, told KHON2 in 2018. “Like 80 percent of our search terms have to do with Jurassic. So, it has a huge effect.” Visitors come to explore the ranch’s vast green valleys via guided ATV tours, horseback rides, ziplines and e-bikes, with dedicated movie tours covering its most famous filming locations. The ranch has also appeared in hundreds of other productions, including 50 First Dates, Hawaii Five-0, Jumanji and Lost.
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La Dolce Vita (1960)


Image Credit: Photo by Archivio Cicconi/Getty Images Trevi Fountain (Rome)
Federico Fellini’s La Dolce Vita remains a timeless invitation to Rome, with its Trevi Fountain scene enduring as one of the most iconic moments in cinematic history. More than 10 million people visited the fountain in 2025, with peaks of around 70,000 a day during the busiest periods. Earlier this year, a new 2 euro fee to get near the fountain was instituted as a crowd-control measure.
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La La Land (2016) and Rebel Without a Cause (1955)


Image Credit: Photo By Raymond Boyd/Getty Images Griffith Observatory (Los Angeles)
Perched above Los Angeles with sweeping views of the city, Griffith Observatory has been a cinematic icon since James Dean’s Jim Stark arrived there on a fateful school trip in Rebel Without a Cause. Sixty years later, Damien Chazelle paid deliberate homage: In La La Land, Mia and Sebastian watch Rebel at the Rialto Theatre before driving up to the observatory for one of the film’s most enchanting sequences, a dance among the stars inside the planetarium. Today, the art deco landmark draws visitors eager to stand in the footsteps of both Jim Stark and Mia Dolan — two dreamers, decades apart, who looked to the stars from the same hilltop.
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Landman (2024)


Image Credit: Donovan Reese Photography/Getty Images Fort Worth Stockyards (Fort Worth, Texas)
Taylor Sheridan’s Paramount+ drama about the dangerous, often corrupt world of Big Oil made Fort Worth an unlikely star. The Fort Worth Stockyards’ twice-daily cattle drives, boot shops and weathered saloons feature prominently, as does Cattlemen’s Steak House, a 1947 institution Sheridan purchased and renovated during production. The city has embraced the spotlight: The tourism board published an official filming locations guide, and fans have been flocking to the Stockyards and other settings from the show, including the historic White Elephant Saloon and Bowie House, a luxury hotel where the show’s power players congregate.
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Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001)


Image Credit: Photo by Giovanni Mereghetti/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images Angkor Wat (Siem Reap, Cambodia)
Angelina Jolie’s portrayal of Lara Croft sent tourist numbers soaring at Angkor Wat, Cambodia’s crown jewel. Translated as “city temple,” the 12th century complex is the largest religious monument in the world and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The nearby temple of Ta Prohm appears in the film in a scene in which Lara pauses to pick a white jasmine flower amid the ruins. Now widely known as the “Tomb Raider Temple,” it remains one of the area’s most visited sites. Enormous strangler fig roots grow untamed over the ancient stone walls of the largely unrestored temple.
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The Last of Us (2023)


Image Credit: Adobe Stock Canmore Main Street (Alberta, Canada)
The postapocalyptic HBO series transformed the main street of Canmore, a town in the Canadian Rockies, into a dystopian stand-in for Jackson, Wyoming. Fans have since made the trip to relive the show’s snowy, desolate world — minus the zombies. A number of other productions have also used the area’s mountain landscapes, including Brokeback Mountain, Legends of the Fall, The Revenant and Inception.
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The Lion King (1994)


Image Credit: Photo by Boniface Muthoni/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images Hell’s Gate National Park (Nakuru County, Kenya)
A National Geographic dreamscape nestled in Kenya’s Great Rift Valley, Hell’s Gate National Park heavily inspired the landscapes of Disney’s The Lion King. The park’s towering Fischer’s Tower served as the model for Pride Rock, where Rafiki holds newborn Simba aloft during “Circle of Life.” Travelers often visit specifically to see the “real” Pride Rock, as well as the steep-sided Hell’s Gate Gorge, which helped inspire the film’s wildebeest stampede scene.
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The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001, 2002, 2003), The Hobbit trilogy (2012, 2013, 2014)


Image Credit: Photo by David Davies/PA Images via Getty Images Hobbiton Movie Set (Matamata, New Zealand)
The Lord of the Rings turned New Zealand into one of the world’s most sought-after set-jetting destinations, and the definitive pilgrimage site for fans is the Hobbiton Movie Set, located on a 1,250-acre sheep farm in Matamata. It served as the filming location for the Shire in both the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit trilogies. This immersive permanent installation, featuring 44 Hobbit Holes and the Green Dragon Inn, offers both a standard tour and an interior Hobbit Hole experience.
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Lost in Translation (2003)


Image Credit: Courtesy Park Hyatt Shinjuku Tokyo Park Hyatt Tokyo (Tokyo)
Perched on the 52nd floor of Shinjuku Park Tower, the New York Bar at Park Hyatt Tokyo is a cinematic landmark. Immortalized in Lost in Translation as a symbol of urban melancholy, the bar — which looks out over the bustling streets of the Shinjuku district — has recently been refreshed as part of a top-to-bottom renovation of the hotel.
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Love Island (2015)


Image Credit: ITV/Shutterstock Sa Vinyassa Villa (Mallorca, Spain)
The hit reality series Love Island U.K. has helped turn Mallorca into an even bigger tourism draw, using the Spanish island as its summer backdrop since 2015. In recent seasons, the action has centered on Sa Vinyassa, a private villa near Sant Llorenç des Cardassar on the island’s east coast that fans can rent when filming is not underway. In 2018, a study by travel agency eDreams found a 23 percent increase in British tourists traveling to Mallorca compared with the prior year. The franchise’s travel pull has extended well beyond Spain: after Love Island USA set up shop in Fiji’s Mamanuca Islands, hotel searches there spiked 30 percent in June 2025, the month season seven debuted.
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Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)


Image Credit: Adobe Stock Namib Desert (Namibia)
Mad Max: Fury Road reimagined Namibia as a postapocalyptic wasteland, using the Namib Desert — one of the oldest deserts on Earth — extensively for its large-scale chase sequences. In 2025, 10 years after the film’s release, travel company Ker & Downey Africa launched an eight-day “Mad Max Safari Adventure” spotlighting Namibia’s dramatic landscapes.
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Mamma Mia! (2008)


Image Credit: Rolf Richardson/Getty Images Agios Ioannis Chapel (Skopelos, Greece)
Perched high above the Aegean Sea, this cliffside chapel on the island of Skopelos was the site of the wedding scene in Mamma Mia! It’s reached by climbing nearly 200 steep steps, rewarded with sweeping, 360-degree views of the water. Following the film’s release, Skopelos experienced a sustained tourism surge as travelers sought out the “Mamma Mia island.”
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The Man With the Golden Gun (1974)


Image Credit: Photo by Damian Gollnisch/picture alliance via Getty Images Ko Ta Pu (Phang Nga Bay, Thailand)
After appearing as Francisco Scaramanga’s hideout onscreen, Ko Ta Pu — a 66-foot limestone rock jutting out of Phang Nga Bay — became forever known as James Bond Island. Today, it ranks among Thailand’s most visited destinations, drawing travelers eager to kayak, snorkel and explore the surrounding sea caves.
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Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol (2011)


Image Credit: ©Paramount/Courtesy Everett Collection Burj Khalifa (Dubai, United Arab Emirates)
One of Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol’s standout stunts found Tom Cruise scaling the exterior of the Burj Khalifa, bringing fresh attention to the world’s tallest building. The sequence helped cement the 2,272-foot tower as a must-see movie landmark in Dubai, with visitors flocking to the observation deck on the 124th floor for a taste of the vertigo-inducing view.
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Money Heist (2017)


Image Credit: Adobe Stock Plaza del Callao (Madrid)
Plaza del Callao, in the center of Madrid, is where the Spanish show’s unforgettable banknote-shower scene was filmed, as the robbers rained cash down on crowds to distract police. It remains one of the most visited Money Heist locations in the city. Loyal viewers also seek out the Spanish National Research Council building, whose exterior was used to portray the Royal Mint of Spain.
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Normal People (2020)


Image Credit: Adobe Stock Trinity College Dublin (Dublin)
In the TV adaptation of Sally Rooney’s intimate novel, Marianne (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and Connell (Paul Mescal) enroll at Trinity College Dublin, where key scenes in the series were shot. Fans continue to visit the campus to retrace the characters’ steps, and the college saw a then-record number of applications in 2020 — up 11 percent from the prior year — in the wake of Normal People’s release. A senior lecturer at the college told CNBC at the time that it was “quite possible” the show played a role in the boost.
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Notting Hill (1999)


Image Credit: ©MCA/Courtesy Everett Collection The Notting Hill Bookshop, Portobello Road (London)
The famous blue door. The bookstore where Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts first meet. The leafy streets with private gardens. Notting Hill created an indelible romantic image of London’s real Notting Hill neighborhood, home to Portobello Road Market. Thousands of fans have since visited the Notting Hill Bookshop that inspired the one in the film, and many have even proposed there, inspired by the movie’s immortal line: “I’m also just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her.”
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The Odyssey (2026)


Image Credit: Adobe Stock Messinia (Peloponnese, Greece)
Christopher Nolan’s highly anticipated adaptation of Homer’s Greek epic is already generating set-jetting frenzy ahead of its July release. Starring Matt Damon as Odysseus, the film was shot across the Mediterranean as well as in Morocco, Iceland and Scotland. Key Greek locations included the Peloponnese region, with Messinia, the fortress of Acrocorinth and Voidokilia Beach among the most striking settings. For travelers looking to follow in Odysseus’ footsteps, wellness resort Euphoria Retreat in the Peloponnese has curated a five-day “Odysseus Journey” featuring guided visits to nearby Sparta and the Taygetos mountains, along with drama therapy, labyrinth meditation, bodywork and hammam sessions.
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One Day (2024)


Image Credit: Sergio Pitamitz/VWPics/Universal Images Group via Getty Images Parikia (Paros, Greece)
Emma and Dexter reconnect on the same day every year for two decades, and viewers were left gutted by the end of the 14-episode Netflix series. Many were also looking at flights to Greece, where the pair holiday in the whitewashed waterfront village of Parikia on the island of Paros. Within three months of the show’s February 2024 Netflix release, searches for Airbnbs in Paros were up by one-third. The show’s reach extended beyond Greece to Edinburgh, where Emma and Dexter first meet on graduation night. According to European rail-booking app Trainline, the Scottish capital saw an 80 percent spike in demand during the month the series debuted.
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On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1968)


Image Credit: Photo by RDB/ullstein bild via Getty Images Piz Gloria (Schilthorn, Switzerland)
Perched atop Schilthorn mountain in Switzerland’s Bernese Oberland, Piz Gloria is the 360-degree revolving restaurant made famous in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service as the hideout of Ernst Stavro Blofeld. Piz Gloria was also the name Ian Fleming gave Blofeld’s lair in the original novel. After the movie came out, the restaurant adopted the name, forever linking it to Bond lore.
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Out of Africa (1985)


Image Credit: Sanctuary Retreats/Mark Williams Photography/Courtesy Abercrombie & Kent Karen Blixen’s homes (Nairobi, Kenya)
The romantic epic Out of Africa had a lasting effect not only on fashion, influencing runways for decades, but also on the global imagination of the luxury safari, helping spark enduring interest in travel to Kenya. The film shot in various locations across the country, including the first farmhouse where memoirist Karen Blixen lived in Kenya. The year after the film’s release, a larger home where she later lived opened to the public as the Karen Blixen Museum in a suburb of Nairobi.
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Outer Banks (2020)


Image Credit: Adobe Stock Hunting Island Lighthouse (Hunting Island, South Carolina)
Netflix’s Outer Banks is set in North Carolina but filmed largely in and around Charleston, South Carolina, where sun-soaked marshes, cobblestone streets and wild coastline make for a seamless stand-in. Among the show’s most recognizable and most visited locations is Hunting Island Lighthouse, the only publicly accessible lighthouse in South Carolina, though it is currently undergoing restoration. Fans have also been making Pogue-inspired pilgrimages to Shem Creek in Mount Pleasant, where many of the boat scenes were filmed, and to the historic streets of downtown Charleston, which double as Kildare County throughout the series.
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Outlander (2014)


Image Credit: Photo by DeAgostini/Getty Images Doune Castle (Stirling, Scotland)
Starz’s historical fantasy series has had such an outsized effect on travel to Scotland that the phenomenon earned its own nickname: “Outlander tourism.” Over eight seasons, the show filmed extensively across the country, so much so that VisitScotland maintains an interactive map of more than 40 filming locations. Perhaps the most famous is Doune Castle, which served as Castle Leoch, home to Clan MacKenzie. By 2020, annual visitor numbers had climbed to 142,000, up from just 38,000 in 2013, and fans often arrive in tartan and kilts dressed as their favorite characters. The castle has also appeared in Ivanhoe, Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Game of Thrones, where it stood in for Winterfell in the pilot.
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Ozark (2017)


Image Credit: Courtesy Lake of the Ozarks (Missouri)
Netflix’s moody crime drama cemented Missouri’s Lake of the Ozarks in the national imagination. Creator Bill Dubuque drew on his own summers working as a dockhand at Alhonna Resort and Marina, which inspired the Blue Cat Lodge, the lakeside hub of the Byrdes’ money-laundering operation. The show’s success helped turn the area, known for its 1,150 miles of shoreline, into a global destination where fans come for a brush with Marty Byrde’s world and stay for boating, fishing and long days on the water.
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Peaky Blinders (2013)


Image Credit: Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images Black Country Living Museum (Dudley, England)
Opened in 1978, the Black Country Living Museum — an open-air museum dedicated to the Industrial Revolution — provided key backdrops across all six seasons of the British crime drama. Most famously, its boat dock and anchor forge serve as Charlie’s Yard on the show. The museum, spread across 26 acres in the West Midlands, has fully embraced its Peaky Blinders identity and hosts immersive “Peaky Blinders Nights” experiences.
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Pretty Woman (1990)


Image Credit: Courtesy Beverly Wilshire, A Four Seasons Hotel Beverly Wilshire Hotel (Los Angeles)
Pretty Woman — the Cinderella story of the ’90s — turned the Beverly Wilshire, A Four Seasons Hotel, into one of cinema’s most recognizable addresses. More than three decades later, fans still flock to the lobby and the nearby shops of Rodeo Drive to relive the film’s most famous scenes. The hotel has leaned into that legacy with its “Pretty Woman for a Day” experience, which includes luxury shopping on Rodeo Drive and a stay in one of its signature suites. For travelers eager to step into the fantasy, packages start at $100,000 with a four-night minimum.
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The Princess Bride (1987)


Image Credit: Adobe Stock Cliffs of Moher (County Clare, Ireland)
Known in the film as the Cliffs of Insanity, the Atlantic-facing cliffs of County Clare were formed more than 300 million years ago. Stretching nearly 8.7 miles along the coastline, they rise 702 feet above the sea at their highest point. One of Ireland’s most breathtaking natural landmarks, the Cliffs of Moher draw more than 1.5 million visitors a year, including plenty of fans quoting The Princess Bride.
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Rocky (1976)


Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection Philadelphia Museum of Art Steps (Philadelphia)
Few fictional characters have left as permanent a mark on a real city as Rocky Balboa has on Philadelphia. The 72 steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art — where Rocky sprints to the top and throws his arms wide in the film’s iconic training montage — draw an estimated 4 million visitors a year, more than twice as many as the Liberty Bell. The bronze Rocky statue at the foot of the steps, donated by Sylvester Stallone after filming, has its own near-constant line. This spring, the museum will mark the film’s 50th anniversary with a major exhibition, Rising Up: Rocky and the Making of Monuments.
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Roman Holiday (1953)


Image Credit: Photo by ANDREAS SOLARO/AFP /AFP via Getty Images The Spanish Steps (Rome)
This bedrock classic of the cinematic canon helped establish worldwide wanderlust for the Eternal City, with the Spanish Steps — where Audrey Hepburn’s Princess Ann enjoys a gelato — becoming a major draw for fans. Since 2019, though, visitors have not been allowed to sit and eat on the steps, a measure intended to protect the historic staircase, which was built between 1723 and 1725.
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Saving Private Ryan (1998)


Omaha Beach (Normandy, France)
The 24-minute opening re-creation of the D-Day landings in Saving Private Ryan remains one of the most intense and realistic portrayals of war ever filmed. Though the sequence was shot on Ireland’s Curracloe Beach rather than in Normandy, the movie inspired a wave of patriotic pilgrimages to Omaha Beach, where the large stainless-steel monument Les Braves honors Allied troops.
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Schitt’s Creek (2015)


Image Credit: PopTV Hockley Motel (Goodwood, Ontario, Canada)
Schitt’s Creek’s real-life counterpart is the quiet Ontario town of Goodwood, where the once-wealthy Rose family makes do at the Rosebud Motel amid worn carpets and brown water dripping from the ceiling. The hamlet has become a tourist magnet since the show first aired, and fans continue to speculate about the fate of the filming location — the shuttered Hockley Motel — and whether it will ever reopen for stays.
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Sex and the City (1998)


Image Credit: Photo by Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images Magnolia Bakery (New York City)
Few shows have done more for New York City tourism than Sex and the City. Across six seasons, two films and a reboot, it turned spots all over town into must-visit destinations for fans worldwide. When Carrie and Miranda shared cupcakes outside Magnolia Bakery in a single scene, they helped spark a global cupcake craze that the West Village shop is still cashing in on — the bakery now sells “The Carrie Cupcake” in her honor. Nearly three decades later, Carrie’s brownstone on Perry Street remains one of the most photographed façades in the West Village, while the show’s broader footprint — including the Central Park Boathouse, the New York Public Library and numerous restaurants and bars — continues to draw fans across the city.
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The Shining (1980)


Image Credit: Photo by Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post via Getty Images The Stanley Hotel (Estes Park, Colorado)
In 1974, Stephen King and his wife checked in to the nearly empty Stanley Hotel and found themselves wandering its corridors alone — an experience that inspired his novel The Shining. Though Stanley Kubrick did not film his 1980 adaptation there — most of the movie was shot on a set in England — the Georgian Revival-style property in the Colorado Rockies draws fans of both the novel and the film. Room 217, where King stayed, is the hotel’s most requested, and it offers a 60-minute Stanley Ghost Tour. In 2025, the property was acquired by a public-private partnership with plans for an expansion that will add the Stanley Film Center, a hub for film, art and cultural programming to include a Blumhouse-curated horror film museum — ensuring that the Overlook’s real-life counterpart will haunt travelers for generations to come.
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Shogun (1980)


Image Credit: Photo by Buddhika Weerasinghe/Getty Images Himeji Castle (Himeji, Japan)
Known as the “White Heron Castle” for rooflines said to resemble a heron taking flight, Himeji Castle — a UNESCO World Heritage Site with origins dating to the 1300s — is the largest and most visited castle in Japan. Many Americans first saw it onscreen when exterior shots of the landmark stood in for Osaka Castle in the 1980 miniseries Shogun, starring Richard Chamberlain. The show inspired many viewers to add Japan to their must-visit list, as has FX’s new adaptation of Shogun, which premiered in 2024. The new series, however, was shot largely in British Columbia. Himeji Castle has also appeared in the 1985 film Ran and the 1967 Bond movie You Only Live Twice.
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Sideways (2004)


Image Credit: Fox Searchlight/Courtesy Everett Collection Santa Ynez Valley (Santa Barbara, California)
A single line of dialogue uttered by Paul Giamatti’s character in Sideways — “If anyone orders merlot, I’m leaving” — tanked merlot sales and sent his preferred pinot noir soaring, a market shift that took years to reverse. The Oscar-winning film’s impact on the Santa Ynez Valley was equally seismic. Within a year, the tourism board had distributed 40,000 Sideways-inspired self-guided tour maps; two decades later, the region’s winery count has more than tripled. “When Sideways was being filmed, we probably had around 100 wineries in Santa Barbara wine country,” Alison Laslett, CEO of Santa Barbara Vintners, tells The Hollywood Reporter. “Twenty years later, we now have well over 300 labels and around 74 different varieties.” The Santa Ynez Valley remains one of California’s most sought-after wine destinations.
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Slumdog Millionaire (2008)


Image Credit: Photo by Bandeep Singh/The The India Today Group via Getty Images Dharavi Slums (Mumbai, India)
In the heart of Mumbai lies Dharavi, one of the world’s largest and most densely populated slums, home to nearly 1 million residents. The area gained global recognition as the backdrop for Slumdog Millionaire, and following the film’s release, Dharavi became one of India’s most visited destinations. Today, visitors are drawn there to learn about the neighborhood’s small-scale industries, including leather, textiles, pottery and recycling. Slum tourism can be controversial, but a number of tour companies operate with a focus on giving back, making donations to local education, health care and development initiatives.
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The Sound of Music (1965)


Image Credit: ©20th Century Fox Film Corp./Courtesy Everett Collection Mirabell Gardens (Salzburg, Austria)
The timeless classic, adapted from the Rodgers and Hammerstein Broadway musical about the von Trapp family, introduced the world to Austria — and specifically Salzburg, the City of Music. The city’s baroque architecture, rich musical history and stunning Alpine landscapes continue to draw film fans from around the globe seeking out The Sound of Music locations. About 300,000 visitors make the pilgrimage to Salzburg annually, and 70 percent of American visitors say the film was a main reason for their trip. Mirabell Gardens, laid out beginning in 1687, is immortalized in the movie when Maria and the children sing and dance around the Pegasus Fountain during the iconic “Do-Re-Mi” sequence.
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Spirited Away (2001)


Image Credit: Photo by John S Lander/LightRocket via Getty Images Dogo Onsen (Matsuyama, Japan)
One of the key inspirations for the Aburaya bathhouse in Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away, Dogo Onsen, on the island of Shikoku, is one of Japan’s most famous natural hot springs. Its three-level traditional wooden bathhouse, Dogo Onsen Honkan, dates to 1894 and continues to draw fans eager to soak in the mineral-rich waters that helped inspire an animated classic.
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Squid Game (2021)


Image Credit: Courtesy Netflix Ssangmun-dong (Seoul, South Korea)
When Squid Game shattered Netflix viewing records in 2021, it helped spark global interest in visiting Seoul, including the modest neighborhood of Ssangmun-dong, where Seong Gi-hun and Cho Sang-woo grew up. Fans make a point of visiting the Ssangmun Uicheon branch of convenience store CU and Baegun Market, the site of Sang-woo’s mother’s fish stall.
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Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) and Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)


Image Credit: Jonathan Olley /© Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures / © Lucasfilm Ltd. /Courtesy Everett Collection Skellig Michael (County Kerry, Ireland)
Once a quiet crag with a history of monasticism dating from between the sixth and eighth centuries, Ireland’s Skellig Michael is now inseparable from its Star Wars legacy. The island’s appearance in the films sparked a wave of tourism, with fans traveling to experience the remote and rugged landscape that played Ahch-To, the birthplace of the Jedi Order and the site of Luke Skywalker’s exile. Boat operators offer seasonal tours of the UNESCO World Heritage Site, and daily visitors are capped at 180.
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Succession (2018)


Image Credit: Getty Images Juvet Landskapshotell (Valldal, Norway)
The fourth and final season of Succession had audiences dreaming of a trip to Norway. Juvet Landskapshotell, the site of the GoJo annual retreat, saw daily website views surge from about 500 to 18,500 — a 3,600 percent increase — overnight and became fully booked for the summer. “We realized Norway just has this exceptional landscape — like nowhere else in the world,” Succession producer Scott Ferguson said in 2018 of the decision to film there.
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The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)


Image Credit: ©Paramount/©Miramax/Courtesy Everett Collection Ischia Ponte (Ischia, Italy)
The intoxicatingly beautiful villages of the Amalfi Coast draped across the cliffs form the aesthetic backdrop of Anthony Minghella’s psychological thriller, which was nominated for five Academy Awards. Standing in for the fictional town of Mongibello were locations in Positano and on the islands of Procida and Ischia. It is on the latter island, in the historic quarter of Ischia Ponte, that Tom Ripley (Matt Damon) gets off a bus, beginning his Italian journey. Twenty-five years after the movie helped spark tourism to Ischia, the 2024 Netflix series Ripley created its own set-jet effect. In the week after the show debuted, Airbnb reported a 93 percent increase in bookings for the area near Atrani, one of the most picturesque locations seen in the series.
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Ted Lasso (2020)


Image Credit: Photo by Steve Christo/Corbis via Getty Images The Prince’s Head (London)
Ted Lasso mania unleashed a torrent of tourism to London’s leafy Richmond neighborhood, with The Prince’s Head on Richmond Green — which appears on the show as the fictional Crown & Anchor pub — becoming a magnet for American fans. The bench out front, where Ted and Coach Beard sit, remains one of the most photographed spots in Richmond.
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Thelma & Louise (1991)


Image Credit: Photo by Wolfgang Kaehler/LightRocket via Getty Images Dead Horse Point State Park (near Moab, Utah)
The final scene of Thelma & Louise — two women on the run, choosing freedom over surrender as their Thunderbird sails off a cliff into the canyon below — remains one of cinema’s most unforgettable endings. Though the film depicts the moment as taking place at the Grand Canyon, the spectacular gorge is actually near Dead Horse Point State Park outside Moab, Utah. The site, now known among fans as Thelma & Louise Point, requires a bumpy drive down a dirt road to reach — a fitting pilgrimage for one of cinema’s great road dramas.
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Top Gun (1986)


Image Credit: Nan Palmero/Flickr Creative Commons Kansas City Barbeque (San Diego)
Tucked into San Diego’s marina district, this unassuming barbecue joint found itself at the center of one of the most iconic films of the 1980s. The story goes that the film’s location director stumbled upon the restaurant and suggested it to director Tony Scott, who liked it enough to shut it down for a day of filming. The bar appears in two of the movie’s most memorable scenes: the “Great Balls of Fire” piano sing-along and the final reunion between Maverick and Charlie. Today, Kansas City Barbeque fully embraces its role as the “Top Gun bar,” with floor-to-ceiling memorabilia, the original piano still in place and a jukebox that plays “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’.”
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The Traitors (2023)


Image Credit: Euan Cherry/Peacock Ardross Castle (Scottish Highlands, Scotland)
The hit Peacock reality competition series pitting the Faithful against the Traitors has turned Ardross Castle into one of the most famous homes in the world. Located 30 miles north of Inverness, the 19th century Scottish Baronial estate — a private events venue available for weddings, corporate gatherings and filming — hosts both the U.K. and U.S. versions of The Traitors. While the castle itself is not open for tours, Pelorus Travel offers the next best thing: a three-day Traitors-inspired experience at another private Scottish castle.
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True Detective (2014)


Image Credit: Photo by Tim Graham/Getty Images Oak Alley Plantation (Vacherie, Louisiana)
Few shows have captured a sense of place quite like the first season of True Detective, and fans have been chasing that atmosphere across Louisiana ever since it aired. The pilot opens with detectives Cohle and Hart discovering a body on the grounds of Oak Alley Plantation in Vacherie, a 200-year-old sugar plantation whose moss-draped oaks and sprawling grounds provided the perfect Southern Gothic backdrop. It has since become an unlikely destination for viewers drawn to the show’s eerie world. From there, visitors head into the state’s wetlands, as much of the season’s most haunting scenery was filmed along the Creole Nature Trail, a scenic byway cutting through marshland south of Lake Charles. Fort Macomb — the crumbling 1820s fortress that stood in for the sinister Carcosa temple — is closed to the public but remains a point of fascination for devoted viewers.
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Twilight (2008)


Image Credit: Photo by Wolfgang Kaehler/LightRocket via Getty Images Forks, Washington, and Multnomah Falls (near Bridal Veil, Oregon)
Set in the rain-soaked logging town of Forks, Washington, Twilight transformed the once-obscure community into a global phenomenon, drawing devoted Twihards from around the world. Much of the film, however, was shot across neighboring Oregon’s dramatic landscapes. Among the most recognizable locations is Multnomah Falls in the Columbia River Gorge, which appears during the film’s beloved baseball sequence. Other sites across Portland, Vernonia and Silver Falls State Park also stand in for Forks onscreen, turning the Pacific Northwest’s misty forests and dramatic scenery into a multistop pilgrimage for fans.
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Under the Tuscan Sun (2003)


Image Credit: Courtesy Villa Laura Villa Laura (Tuscany, Italy)
The story of a divorced writer who impulsively buys a run-down villa in the Tuscan countryside and rebuilds her life has inspired waves of viewers to dream of doing the same. The film’s anchor is Villa Laura, a quintessential 17th century ochre-washed Tuscan estate just outside the hilltop town of Cortona, which played the role of the fictional Villa Bramasole. Restored after filming, it now welcomes visitors, with 10 rooms available for weekly rental.
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Vertigo (1958)


Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection/Adobe Stock Old Mission San Juan Bautista (San Juan Bautista, California)
About 100 miles south of San Francisco, Old Mission San Juan Bautista — a Spanish colonial mission founded in 1797 — served as the setting for the climactic scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo. While the mission’s exterior, church and gardens appear onscreen, the film’s vertigo-inducing bell tower was a cinematic invention created through matte work and set design. The mission remains a draw for Hitchcock devotees, who come to stand in the place where the film’s haunting finale unfolds. Other key locations — from the Palace of the Legion of Honor to Fort Point and Mission Dolores — extend the film’s footprint across San Francisco.
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Wednesday (2022)


Image Credit: Adobe Stock Cantacuzino Castle (Bușteni, Romania)
Cantacuzino Castle in Bușteni provided the striking exteriors for Nevermore Academy, the boarding school in Netflix’s hit series. Completed in 1911 for Romanian aristocrat Prince Gheorghe Grigore Cantacuzino, the grand carved-stone neo-Romanian building is open to the public. The production also shot in and around Bucharest, which saw a 55 percent increase in hotel searches during the month of the series’ 2022 debut, compared with the prior four weeks, according to Expedia.
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When Harry Met Sally … (1989)


Image Credit: Photo by Al Pereira/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images Katz’s Delicatessen (New York City)
Few restaurants have been immortalized onscreen quite like Katz’s Delicatessen on New York’s East Houston Street. The legendary deli — celebrated for its pastrami on rye long before Hollywood came calling — became the setting for one of cinema’s most quoted scenes, when Meg Ryan’s Sally famously faked an orgasm over lunch with Billy Crystal’s Harry. The table is now marked by a sign hanging from the ceiling, and the restaurant remains packed with fans eager to sit in Sally’s booth.
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When Life Gives You Tangerines (2025)


Image Credit: Ina Tsitovich/Getty Images Gimnyeong Seongsegihaebyeon Beach (Jeju Island, South Korea)
Netflix’s hit K-drama is a certified sob-fest, following the lifelong love story of Ae-sun and Gwan-sik. It helped create global awareness of South Korea’s Jeju Island with scenes set on this white-sand beach on the island’s northern coast, where Ae-sun’s mother works as a haenyeo, or female free diver.
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The White Lotus (2021)


Image Credit: Courtesy San Domenico Palace, Taormina, A Four Seasons Hotel San Domenico Palace Hotel (Taormina, Sicily, Italy)
With its clever blend of aspirational lifestyle and dark satire, The White Lotus has been the poster child for the set-jetting phenomenon since its debut. After season one put a spotlight on Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea, the property saw a 425 percent year-over-year uptick in website visits and a 386 percent increase in availability checks. When season two filmed in Sicily at San Domenico Palace, Taormina, a Four Seasons Hotel, the “White Lotus effect” escalated, with the hotel soon booked out for six months — a pattern that has largely continued. Season three, set at Thailand’s Four Seasons Resort Koh Samui, kept the travel juggernaut going: Hotels.com reported a 40 percent increase in booking interest for the resort, and Four Seasons rolled out White Lotus-themed cabanas and specialty cocktails across multiple properties. Next up: Season four travels to the South of France, checking in at Château de la Messardière in Saint-Tropez.
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The Witcher (2019)


Image Credit: Adobe Stock Ogrodzieniec Castle (Podzamcze, Poland)
Netflix’s adaptation of Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski’s fantasy series found Ogrodzieniec Castle an ideal fit for its monster-filled world. The ruined 14th century fortress was used as the setting for the Battle of Sodden Hill. Sitting along the Trail of the Eagles’ Nests, a hiking route that links roughly 25 castles and watchtowers, the site has seen a steady surge in foot traffic since the show’s release, particularly during the summer months.
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Wuthering Heights (2026)


Image Credit: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Yorkshire Dales (North Yorkshire, England)
Emerald Fennell’s loose adaptation of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights is already generating set-jetting buzz, with the Yorkshire Dales serving as the brooding backdrop to the tempestuous love story. “Go no matter the weather, it can be lovely and sunny, snowy, or windy. There is a deep, real magic to it,” The Points Guy’s Nicky Kelvin says of the dales. South of the area lies the Brontë Parsonage Museum and family home in Haworth.
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Yellowstone (2018)


Image Credit: Adrian Sanchez-Gonzalez/The Washington Post via Getty Images Chief Joseph Ranch (Darby, Montana)
بفضل مناظرها الطبيعية الخلابة في مونتانا، ساهم مسلسل “يلوستون” في ازدهار السياحة في جميع أنحاء الولاية منذ عرضه الأول عام 2018. وكشفت دراسة أجرتها جامعة مونتانا أن المسلسل استقطب 2.1 مليون زائر وأنفقوا 730 مليون دولار في عام 2021 وحده. وأصبحت مزرعة “تشيف جوزيف” في وادي بيترروت – وهي مزرعة عائلية عاملة تمثل منزل عائلة داتون على الشاشة – وجهةً لا غنى عنها لمحبي المسلسل، حيث يمكنهم الإقامة ليلةً في أكواخ ظهرت في المسلسل، مع جولات سياحية بصحبة مرشدين. كما شهد منتزه يلوستون الوطني تدفقًا كبيرًا من الزوار الجدد الذين جذبهم المسلسل، بينما استغلت مدينتا بوزمان وميسولا ” تأثير يلوستون ” من خلال تنظيم جولات وتجارب سياحية مميزة.
نُشرت هذه القصة في عدد السفر لعام 2026 من مجلة هوليوود ريبورتر . انقر هنا لقراءة المزيد.

