India has the advantages of an enviable geographical terrain, ancient cultural and historical heritage, hospitable people, world class tourism & highly skilled people. It is the ideal location to shoot movies, with this amazing diversity and also its cost- advantage benefits in terms of locations, skilled yet inexpensive manpower & local talent.

India was estimated to have produced 1500 + films in 2022 making it one of the largest contributors to the global film tourism market which was estimated to be roughly ~ $ 60 billion.

Films can have a lasting impact on us and therefore our travel decisions, since it drives us to see and experience the filmed locations first hand. This automatically leads to an increase in favourable recall for the destinations and therefore tourism.

After the resounding success of many India centered films and productions several international studios have actively incorporated a large portion of their films in India due to availability of talented filmmaking crew, actors, picturesque locations and world- class production capabilities and those at highly competitive costs.

With their charming, magical and bigger than life picturisation, many of these destinations have beautifully captured the imagination of film watchers and converted them successfully as tourists to visit the places where films were shot.  Over and above these locations get the additional benefits of income, capital and operating investments, jobs, taxes, which all contribute to the state and to the country’s economic development.

Keeping that in mind, the draft strategy is proposed to focus on the following pillars:

- National & State level Coordination, Country & Destination Branding, Destination Infrastructure Development, Global bilateral film tourism treaties, International scale skilling, Financial Incentives, Post Film travel & tourism outreach and Structural & Governance Mechanisms.

Nakul Anand, Chairman, FAITH said, “We are extremely thankful to Government for accepting our proposed inputs for draft film tourism strategy for India. Film tourism segment impacts all our stakeholders be those hoteliers, tourist transporters, travel agents & tour operators, restaurants, destinations and so on and thus requires an integrated effort across all ministries and departments.