Could Angelina Jolie's 'Unbroken' send tourists running to our shores?

Angelina Jolie’s Unbroken is being hailed as an Oscar contender, and with Pirates of the Caribbean set to film at the Gold Coast in 2015, could we see a fan-based tourism increase in Queensland?

This could be epic: Fan-based Tourism

Angelina Jolie’s $65 million World War II epic, based on the true story of American Olympian turned bombardier Louis Zamperini, is set in several locations, 1920s California, 1936 Berlin, 1942 Hawaii and Japanese POW camps during the latter stages of the war. Luckily Queensland could provide, respectively, Tamworth, Bankstown, Mission Beach and Cockatoo Island – and most people won’t even notice. See if you can recognise the locations in the trailer below:

Could we see a rise in tourism to Queensland from ‘Unbroken’? There are certainly precedents to suggest that with ‘Muriel’s Wedding’ (1994) and Fool’s Gold (2008) both putting the beautiful and computer wallpaper worthy Hamilton Island on the map.

It’s been shown that there are huge tourism potentials in these big international movies, there’s the classic case of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogy positively impacting visitor numbers in New Zealand:

•  International Visitor Arrivals data for year ending August 2014 show holiday arrivals into New Zealand are up 7.2 per cent on last year.
• Holiday arrivals from the United States, a key target market for the Middle-earth campaign, are up 14.2 per cent on the same period last year.
• The International Visitor Survey shows that 13 per cent of all international visitors surveyed July 2013 – June 2014, say The Hobbit was a factor in stimulating their interest in New Zealand as a destination.

Even small screen gems like The Game of Thrones has affected tourism with Scotland now running tours through locations used in the popular TV series.

Queensland certainly seems to be enjoying its spot at the limelight at the moment with the fifth instalment of the colossally successful Pirates of the Caribbean movie being filmed there next year.

Australia as a whole benefits enormously from our industry’s brushes with Hollywood, argues Screen Australia’s Mason. “Angelina being here or when Johnny Depp is here [for next year’s Pirates of the Caribbean 5] or Cate Blanchett getting up in front of a billion people at the Oscars talking about Australia is publicity that the trade department and Tourism Australia could never get,” he said.

Have you ever followed a celebrity’s trail or perhaps visited locations from your favourite book/movie? Where did it take you? Let’s all try to one up each other in the comments section below.