Last Wednesday night, a band of filmmakers, tourism boards and brands gathered over cheese, wine and champagne to celebrate the inaugural Cairns Crocodiles Film & Screen Track.
Hosted by Irresistible Magazine and The Misfits Media Company, the event brought together some of the industry’s leading minds to explore the growing intersection between tourism and film.
From HBO’s White Lotus driving travel to Hawaii and Thailand, to Outlander-themed tourism in Scotland, the destination marketing potential of the film industry is impossible to ignore.
Attendees included film, streaming and production representatives from HBO, Netflix, Foxtel, The Post Lounge, Entropico Production, La Verite Films, the Persian Film Festival and French Film Festival.
They were joined by travel industry heavyweights from Tourism New Zealand, LA Tourism, Tourism Ireland, Tourism Australia, French Tourist Bureau, Philippine Tourism, Viking, Cook Islands, Taiwan Tourism and Samoa Tourism.
The Wine & Cheese event was hosted in independent creative agency Today the Brave’s Surry Hills office, where conversations centred around how entertainment is influencing the way travellers discover and connect with destinations.
“Long-form content is an underutilised channel opportunity for brands,” Today The Brave’s founding partner Jaimes Leggett told B&T.
“It gives us the time to create a relationship with the audience. With that time we can take them on a journey of real emotional connection. We can surprise, delight, titillate and then we can sell. With a 30-second commercial, you’ve got to get to the sell really quickly. Long-form is a longer delivery mechanism and it gives you an opportunity to deliver a far more powerful message. Brands are under-utilising it.
“The world of film, TV and content is evolving just like everything else, and the fascinating group of people who gathered last night are at the vanguard of where the conversation, and the market, is going next,” editorial director of Irresistible Magazine and lead curator of Cairns Crocodiles Film & Screen Track, Catherine de Clare said.
“These thought leadership ideas will carry on into the Film & Screen Track at Cairns Crocodiles 2027 where the worlds of screen, marketing and tourism will continue to collide.”
“We have three communities of decision makers though our media platforms across travel, brands, film and screen,” said Nancy Hromin, director of the Misfits Media Company. No event in Australia before Cairns Crocodiles brought these decision makers together to explore opportunities. Cairns Crocodiles is now doing that and continues to grow into Asia next year “
