Film Production and Tourism Development in Nigeria. An Analysis of the Impact of Media on Tourism

Research Paper (postgraduate) from the year 2008 in the subject Tourism - Miscellaneous, grade: 4.5, University of Ibadan, language: English, abstract: This paper is about how the media in Nigeria can initiate a sense of departure to tourism sites through its movies/television programs. A major trend in tourism, this decade is the move away from the appreciation of the traditional elements of the practice-sight scenery, good weather and acquisition of luxury items –towards urban heritage –based, short –break, tourism emphasizing culture as products. The notion of departure or exit is in part initiated and constructed by a multiplicity of media, most importantly the film and television industries and packaged as advertisement.The entrepreneurs or developers of the media even in developing countries, perceive the countryside, specifically, not as a natural living environment of limited socio-economic value, but as a commodity that can be packaged and sold for a price to viewers. That is, the rural localities, locally and internationally have become popular contexts for a myriad of television serials or the setting of films and videos. The images the media foster are beamed into the homes of many people and succeed in constraining the audience to enjoy an experience of the great outdoors in the comfort and safety of the idyllic places.In other words, the viewers may be moved to go in search of the locations used anticipating the findings of what they saw on their screens and may be encountering the very role players in the presentations. Films and movies may and actually in certain circumstances serve to generate interests in locations used, especially when the setting involves attractive countryside and captivating cultural practices of the people. The films, therefore, have become of great interest to the public because they package specific cultures of the idyllic lifestyles and promote market values that can generate huge incomes.