Strategic Considerations For The Promotion Of Tourism In Galicia Throughout Its Movies

Many researchers are studying the role that movies have in creating the image of a tourism destination. Recently, López and Osácar (2008), applied this concept to the case of Barcelona, trying to reveal the overall image that people gets from Barcelona throughout Pedro Almodóvar ´s movie «Todo sobre mi madre» (1999). Both researches state that movies are a good instrument for the transmission of the city identity and the status that the tourism destination wants to exhibit, finally the movie becomes a contribution to what its named “Tourism Destination Placement” (TDP, the appearance of destination within the film). Galicia owns a rich film heritage, which reflects touristic locations within our community. For example, «La lengua de las mariposas» (1999) and the village Allariz, «El lápiz del carpintero» (2002) and the city of A Coruña, «Trece campanadas» (2002) and the city of Santiago de Compostela, «Los girasoles ciegos» (2008) and the city of Ourense, «El año de la garrapata» (2001) and the city of Lugo, «Lena» (2003) and the city of Vigo, among many others. In addition there are some festivals like the «Ourense International Film Festival» which also helps strengthen the image of the country worldwide. Therefore we consider viable to use the media arts as a cultural tourism resource, which first should spread the identity of a community and, secondly, will promote the tourism destination, in this case Galicia.