A popular TV anime in Japan is doing the job of Tourism Australia by promoting Sydney, and specifically, the Russell Hotel, to the Japanese, after featuring the hotel in an episode of Free! Eternal Summer.
And even though the episode was aired more than two years ago, throngs of Japanese tourists are still visiting this “tourist attraction” in Sydney’s historic district, The Rocks, keen to lay their eyes on the actual hotel that was drawn into Japanese anime culture.
“They use this hotel in the animation and actually it’s [the] same as this hotel.”
Miyuki Kitayama, Japanese tourist, speaking to SBS
Most of these tourists aren’t just content with visiting the Russell Hotel, though.
Sleeping for a night in room 25, which was the same room the main character, Rin, stayed in in the show, is what most die-head fans of Free! Eternal Summer really want to do.
Source: www.australianherald.com
Staying in room 25 is so popular and in demand, in fact, that according to GM of the hotel, Gary Quass speaking to News.com.au, the room is often booked up to one year in advance.
Charmion Lumsden, who works at the front desk, told SBS that the hotel receives frequent booking requests from many different agencies, with notes in the booking always requesting room 25. She also recounts on how the hotel receives many walk ins off the street to take a peep inside and take photos – of the room too, if possible.
Capitalising on the tourist appeal of the hotel, the Russell Hotel is now selling key rings of the fantastical room as souvenirs – so far, more than 500 have been sold!
The producers of Free! Eternal Summer visited Australia back in 2014 and used the Russell Hotel in an episode documenting the main character’s first overseas trip.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I43UjiF6u0c
Since airing on Japanese TV back in 2014, the episode has inspired many Japanese to travel to Australia and specifically the hotel. Amusingly, many of these tourists dress up as anime characters from the show for the visit too, blurring the line between reality and fantasy.
Take a look at how the hotel was rendered into anime below:
The Russell Hotel phenomenon has much in common with the Park Hyatt in Shinjuku phenomenon, which was the hotel used in Sofia Coppola’s 2013 film Lost in Translation starring Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson. So it works both ways…
Last year, Japan was Australia’s sixth largest inbound market for visitor arrivals, seventh largest for total visitor spend, and ninth largest for visitor nights.
Japanese tourists spent a total of $1.3 billion on our shores in 2015, and Tourism Australia estimates that the Japan market may grow to between $2.7 billion and $3.3 billion in total expenditure by 2020.