When someone, from anywhere around the world, watches a film, a series or a documentary made in another country, they feel more connected to that culture and are keener to explore that destination. This is the general conclusion from the report entitled ‘The contribution by Netflix to tourism in Spain and the Spain brand’, presented last week at Fitur Screen, which evaluates the impact of Spanish productions on cultural affinity and tourism in our country.
Specifically, those who watch such successful Netflix series as Money Heist, Elite, Cable Girls and Valeria are 20% more likely to feel a closer connection with Spanish culture, twice as interested in learning to speak Spanish and almost twice as interested in meeting people from Spain as those who are not consumers of this content made in Spain. 25% are even more likely to be fascinated by our country by consuming Spanish audio-visual content. Subscribers of the platform who consume content produced in our country are, on average, 46% more interested in Spain.
Among those places of our country that the 13,000 people surveyed expressed the greatest interest in are its monuments, gastronomy, architecture, nature, history and festivals. Watching Spanish series and films have increased, by an average of at least 22%, the interest in these fields of culture of Spain compared with those who do not consume these audio-visual products.
The Netflix study – a platform that is present in more than 190 countries – also indicates the way in which Spanish content generates a cultural infinity: for example, the titles may inspire trips to the specific autonomous regions where they are set; everyday stories tend to have a more positive impact regarding Spain, and the different subject matters help inspire specific cultural interests, such as knowing more about local traditions and sport.
70% of Netflix audiences have watched Spanish content
'Élite', another of the great Spanish hits of recent years. Photo: Netflix
The audio-visual content platform via steaming has facilitated the viewing of content made in Spain throughout the world. On average, 70% of spectators in the countries surveyed enjoy Spanish content. Particularly noteworthy are Argentina, Mexico and Brazil, where the percentage of spectators that consume series, films and documentaries made in Spain rises to 80%. In the other three reference countries in the study, the figures are also high: 60% of Netflix subscribers in France have watched Spanish productions, 56% in Germany and 40% in the United States, according to the study carried out by BASIS Research in August 2020.
Among these six countries, Mexico records the largest number of users that claim to feel closely connected with Spanish culture: 53% of Netflix users – 16 points higher than those who watch Spanish content on other platforms.
Tourist attraction
Furthermore, those surveyed in these six countries –Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, France, Germany and the United States – place Spain as their leading destination amongst their travel preferences. Of these, Argentina is the country with the highest percentage of those surveyed who state that Spain is their preferred tourist destination: almost 6 out of 10 subscribers, 15% more than those that consume Spanish content on other platforms aside from Netflix.
The study points out that the proportion of those surveyed that place Spain among their favourite countries is, on average, 25% higher among viewers of Spanish content in all the markets evaluated.
In general terms, the wish to travel and see our country first-hand is significantly higher among those who have seen content made in Spain – 81% of viewers – compared with 61% of those who have not seen such content.
‘Spain Screen Grand Tour’ Route
The Castle of Almodovar del Rio (Cordoba), has been the scene of 'Game of Thrones' (HBO), 'The Warrior Nun' (Netflix) or 'Camelot', among many other productions . Photo: turismodealmodovar.org
Precisely with the aim of boosting film tourism, the Spain Film Commission (SFC) has launched the ‘Spain Screen Grand Tour’ project. Also presented at Fitur Screen, this is a route of acknowledged series and film locations that includes villages, cities, coastlines, mountains, deserts and old towns.
This is a way of boosting ‘screen tourism’, aimed at tourists that love films and series, who are well-informed and interconnected, which is also widely broadcast on the social media, and who are interested in interacting with the culture of the country they visit.
This thus generates safe, quality tourism, which may be key in the diversification and sustainability of the Spanish tourism offer, based on the country’s cultural and landscape attractions. In fact, the concept of ‘Grand Tour’ takes its name from the movement of European travellers who, between the 17th and 19th Centuries, travelled around the continent as a means of broadening their horizons, of collecting art, and of coming into contact with other languages and cultures. ‘Screen tourism’ not only has a high quality profile of tourist, but also reduces the seasonal dependence on sun and sand tourism.