Stakeholders’ Perspective: Impacts of Film-Induced Tourism in Sagada, Philippines

Abstract

Films have now become one of the influences for an individual to travel film location sites. Researchers looking at this phenomenon called ‘film-induced tourism’ have identified a range of economic benefits, but other aspects possess potentially negative attributes. This study focuses on the Filipino film, “That Thing Called Tadhana” recorded in Sagada, Philippines. Few months after showing, there was a rapid increase in tourist arrivals in Sagada. However, drastic changes in its environment became more apparent. Since impacts of tourism are mostly patterned to three bottom line model, the researchers analyzed the economic, environmental, and socio-cultural impacts of film-induced tourism. Moreover, the perceptions of major stakeholders – tourists, local residents and local government – were taken into consideration to examine the impacts. This is a mixed-method research that involves quantitative and qualitative techniques. First, an administered survey questionnaire was utilized to compare the opinions of 200 tourists and 200 local residents. Then, in-depth interviews were conducted with five representatives of the local government in Sagada. Findings reveal that there are significant differences between tourists and local residents’ opinion towards film-induced tourism. On the other hand, the local government welcomes development of film- induced tourism as long as it does not harm local community, especially their culture and the ecology.