Six wildly popular movie filming locations: The Descendants and Skyfall trend on search lists

Reported by You Ru / Taipei

As the Oscars and several other globally renowned film awards prepare to announce their winners, Hotels.com, the leading global provider of online hotel services, recently analyzed the search habits of British travelers to identify the 2012 films with the most potential to ignite a travel craze. The results show that George Clooney’s film The Descendants topped the list, with the enchanting beaches of Hawaii and the island of Kauai serving as the film’s settings. Since the movie’s release, the area has seen a significant surge in popularity. Compared to January 2011, traveler searches for Hawaii on the site jumped by 282%.


▲ New Zealand, where The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey was filmed, also became one of the top-searched destinations. (Photo / from the Friends of Hobbiton Movie Set Facebook page)

Skyfall, which not only recently won the 2013 Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song, also performed exceptionally well in this survey. The thrilling chase scene at the beginning of the movie was shot in Istanbul, boosting local search rates by 171%. Additionally, Shanghai is also one of the film’s settings, and its search rate surged by 108% compared to the same period last year.

Fictional settings from fantasy movies have also been highly favored by British travelers, becoming popular vacation spots. For example, the box-office hit The Hunger Games was filmed in Asheville, North Carolina, USA, which saw a 141% increase in search interest. After The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey was released in December 2012, New Zealand’s search rate on Hotels.com rose by 114%. Twilight: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 successfully drew Twilight fans to Vancouver, where search interest increased by 89% in November 2012.

Regarding search trends among Taiwanese travelers on the Hotels.com Taiwan website, The Descendants remained in first place, with a 77% increase in search interest during the month of its release. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2, which caused a box office sensation in Taiwan, ranked second (59%), while Shanghai, featured in Skyfall, came in third (54%).


▲ Six wildly popular movie scenes that are driving tourism trends. (Photo / Provided by Hotel.com)