The Descendants was filmed in Hawaii
Films in 2012 caused surges in popularity to movie destinations including Hawaii, Istanbul and New Zealand.
In the midst of movie award season, Hotels.com reveals the top films of 2012 that are sparking huge travel trends into 2013, as UK travellers look to visit the location of their favourite films.
The overall most popular film of 2012 was The Descendants, where searches to Hawaii and its glorious beaches that George Clooney battled to protect, increased by 282 per cent in January 2012, compared to January 2011.
Skyfall may have been awarded a Golden Globe for Best Original Song, but it also fared well in the travel chart with searches to its locations of Istanbul up 171 per cent, and Shanghai up 108 per cent in its month of release compared to the same period last year.
Fictional film destinations also proved extremely popular as holiday destinations in 2012, with The Hunger Games inspiring an increase of searches of 141 per cent to its location of Asheville, North Carolina and The Hobbit causing a 114 per cent spike in searches to New Zealand, on Hotels.com, when it was released in December 2012.
Twilight Breaking Dawn Part 2 inspired “Twihards” to visit its main location of Vancouver, Canada, with searches up 89 per cent in November 2012.
Kate Hopcraft of Hotels.com said: “The search increases to movie destinations just goes to show that our love of film doesn’t end when we leave the cinema, as film fanatics from across the UK have been inspired to visit the top locations of 2012 in real life.
“With the Oscars just around the corner, it will be interesting to see whether the winning productions spark further travel interest as fans look to recreate the cinematic magic for themselves.”
Top 5 movie destinations experiencing the greatest search increases following their release:
The Descendants – Hawaii
Skyfall – Istanbul, Turkey
The Hunger Games – Asheville, North Carolina
Skyfall – Shanghai, China
Twilight Breaking Dawn Part II – Vancouver, Canada
Have you visited any of these destinations just because of the films they featured in? Tell us in the comments below or tweet us @FemaleFirst_UK
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