An Empirical Study On The Impact Of Audience Involvement On Film Tourism Experience

In recent years, it is a general phenomenon that films drive the development of tourism. Hollywood, Hengdian World in China, and Disneyland which are regarded as the classic places for film tourism have made huge benefits both economically and socially. However, with the increasing diversity of tourist needs, the scope of film tourism is no longer limited to film-making base or theme park, but extends to personalized and customized tourism products according to specific films or TV shows, such as Xixi Wet Land in Hangzhou and "If you are the one", outbound tourism to Thailand and "Lost in Thailand", shooting locations and "Where are we going, Dad?". Thus, it is the top priority for film marketers and destination managers to develop tourism products that meet tourists’ personalized needs and cultural appeal for films. Meanwhile, in academic field, it is also important for researchers to figure out how audience involvement impacts film tourist experience.This study will explore four questions through an empirical investigation to the university student audiences of "Where are we going, Dad?". Firstly, what is the construct of audience involvement? Secondly, what is the construct of film tourist experience? Thirdly, how does audience involvement influence film tourist experience? Lastly, what efforts should be done for more effective convergence of film and tourism industry?The whole work has five major parts. The first part is background information, structure and significance of this study. The second part is systematic literature review of film tourism and audience involvement, which lays theoretical foundation for this study. The third part is empirical analysis, including research hypotheses, questionnaire design, pilot survey, sample collection, and data analysis. The fourth part is discussion to the results obtained from data analysis, and also some theoretical values of this thesis. The last part is conclusion, including research findings, operational advice for film and tourism industry, limitations and prospects of this research.The results indicate that audience involvement is composed of five dimensions:(a) cognitive involvement,(b) behavioral involvement,(c) emotional involvement,(d) referential reflection, and (e) critical reflection; Film tourists experience is composed of three dimensions:(a) prestige and privilege,(b) intimacy and memory, and (c) post-screen experience; Each dimension of audience involvement has an impact on film tourist experience, for instance, behavioral involvement has the greatest impact on prestige and privilege, emotional involvement has the greatest impact on intimacy and memory, while cognitive involvement has the greatest impact on post-screen experience. Additionally, the dimension of intimacy and memory can be mostly predicted by the overall model of audience involvement. Finally, this study also provides several operational suggestions for film and tourism industry.