Set-Jetting Takes Off
by Christine Bord
Perform a search for the phrase ‘set-jetters’ in Google and you will receive about 19,000 results. Not bad for a relatively new term. A set-jetter is someone who travels to a location because it has been featured in a movie, TV show, or novel they enjoy.
Movies do have a way of making places that are already stunning seem magical. Last week I went to see the movie A Good Year starring Russell Crowe which was filmed in the south of France. Thinking about the movie now, all I can picture is that beautiful countryside. I catch my self daydreaming in my cubicle about riding a bike over those country roads with a basket full of flowers or watching the sunset over acres of grape vines. How wonderful it would be to escape to that fantasy.
As travel becomes more accessible and information more viable travel to these locations is on the rise. Tourism to New Zealand has increased 50% since the release of The Lord of the Rings Trilogy which was made in the country. In the U.S. this phenomenon took off after the movie Sideways was nominated for several academy awards and became a commercial success. The movie,which was filmed in the wine country around Santa Barbara, CA, helped wineries featured in the film see a 42% increase in business after the film’s release.
I know I have been drawn to locations in the past because of their starring roles in movies. Take a trip I took to the south a few years ago. I knew it wouldn’t have been complete without a stop in Savannah, GA. After seeing Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil the city was put on my radar and I am grateful, since I had a wonderful time. The city is grateful too. Tourism there has certainly expanded since the popularity of the film. Every tourist shop and convenience store sells copies of both the book and the movie, postcards featuring the most popular locations in the film, and guide books to help you find them. Why are we so captivated by these locations?
In most news articles this set-jetting movement is chalked up to celebrity obsession. Though this may be true in some cases, I think it is about something more.
The best part of the best films is the ability to take the audience somewhere else, to live out a fantasy, connect with someone, be scared, be restless, or be moved. They are pure magic and since movies are so magical, maybe we are just trying to catch our own lighting in a bottle? Like my fantasy of A Good Year, I want to capture the magic and romance of the south of France!
A few popular Sociologists compare movies to religion; particularly the similarities of ritual and the community felt when we become part of the collective audience. Some even look at movies as the source that teaches us right from wrong, shows us how to live, and reinforces our values. If this is true that film functions like religion, maybe set-jetting is our pilgrimage to a pop culture Mecca?
I don’t know for sure what it is that keeps me or any other set-jetter traveling from movie location to movie location but it has been a wonderful way, or wonderful excuse, to see the world. Set-jetters also bring tourism dollars to places that may not have made it on to anyone’s travel itinerary without the movies that feature them. To me this is a win-win no matter what the reason.
