The Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, Reyes Maroto, and the Director General of Cultural Industries and Cooperation, Adriana Moscoso, have held a working meeting this afternoon with representatives of the Spain Film Commission (SFC), which have been analyzed the opportunities of the audiovisual industry in our country. The meeting was attended by James Costos, honorary ambassador of the SFC, its president, Carlos Rosado, and Óscar Puente, mayor of Valladolid.
For Reyes Maroto, “the Spanish audiovisual industry is in good health, and that is why we want to continue promoting our country in the production of content, which reports important benefits for our external image in this area, as well as for the domestic economy and the tourism in the territories that host these productions ”.
Audiovisual hub
Within this state commitment to the promotion of the audiovisual industry in Spain, the Government's intention to create an audiovisual hub in our country is framed.
“It is about making visible in other countries our potential as a venue for filming of films or international series produced by large platforms, as well as accentuating their potential as a source of activity, business and employment,” added Reyes Maroto.
In this area there are initiatives such as the ICEX, Audiovisual from Spain, a brand that brings together Spanish companies in the film and television content sector for international promotion. One of its areas, called Rolling in Spain, disseminates information about the incentives it has to shoot in our territory, the facilities for producing productions and the wide variety of landscapes that our country hosts.
Film tourism
On the other hand, there is a growing interest on the part of the tourist to visit places where films and series of great audience have been filmed, which opens an opportunity to promote these destinations and promote the visit to these places.
According to a study presented in April 2018 by TCI Research, eighty million people chose their travel destination based on movie and television series locations. For Reyes Maroto, “this phenomenon represents an alternative to diversify the tourist offer and combat seasonality; cinematographic tourism is a powerful tourist promotion tool with which the territories have to enhance their differentiation and visibility ”.
With the aim of promoting the audiovisual industry in Spain, in March of last year the Ministry of Tourism signed with the Spain Film Commission and the Institute of Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts (ICAA) an Intentions Protocol aimed at promoting of cinematographic tourism. This protocol includes structural actions, to support the generation of new tourism products, services and foreign promotion.
