What is ‘set jetting’? And why some say there’s ‘untapped potential’

There remains “untapped potential” in screen tourism, according to some who work in the industry.

Hit shows such as Bridgerton, Game Of Thrones and Gavin & Stacey have attracted visitors to some of the locations used to film the series.

But some say that more could be done to reap the rewards of the trend of visiting TV and film locations, sometimes known as “set jetting”.

Glenda Kenyon, 71, owns one of the houses used to film Gavin & Stacey, on Trinity Street in Barry Island.

Ms Kenyon told Sky News that since opening up her home to location tours, she had welcomed 28,398 visitors through her door over the years.

“I’ve had people from Hawaii, Africa, India, Cardiff, London, and a lot more places than that,” she said.

“Honest to god, I love it, I love the show. If I didn’t love the show, I wouldn’t be doing this.”

Having lived in Barry for 35 years, Ms Kenyon says she has seen a lot of change in the town and that she expects there will be “a lot more coaches” visiting after the recent finale.

“In the beginning, when they first started, they don’t tell you they’re going to come back and do another one,” she said.

“I will miss it, but I know I’ve still got the tours and that’s good for me.”

The latest official statistics from the British Film Institute show that inbound tourists spend an estimated £892m annually in film-related screen tourism in the UK.

A total of 19% of the UK domestic holiday market reported that visiting locations featured in TV, film or literature was an experience they would like to do during a holiday or short break in the country, according to Welsh government research.

‘Deeply undeveloped’

Robert Dowling, 51, worked as a national tour guide in Ireland before he set up the Game Of Thrones Tours company in late 2012 to showcase some of the series’ locations in Northern Ireland.

Mr Dowling told Sky News he believed there was “untapped potential” in screen tourism.

“Screen tourism remains deeply undeveloped…it’s kind of a new field now, it’s quite exciting,” he said.

“I suspect Game Of Thrones will still be a thing 10 or 20 years from now, and therefore we can invest with confidence that there will be demand.

“That’s my argument for why we should develop screen tourism, because I think it has an enduring appeal.”

More than a decade since the series first aired, he said the tours can be “emotional” and “moving” as visitors embrace the nostalgia, with some even deciding to get engaged at the featured locations.

“My motive for it was really to show people the beauty of County Down and County Antrim in Northern Ireland,” he said.

“By the time season two came out [in 2012] I said ‘Right, this is going to be a thing, this is just awesome’, because those two seasons are very big on Northern Ireland locations”.

With a total of eight seasons and a number of spin-off series comes a whole host of locations to explore and share with fans.

“We’ve tweaked the itinerary as we went through all eight seasons of Game Of Thrones to include new stuff, and we’re going to have to do that again in 2025,” he added.

“It’s great that there’s more to come with A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms, so we’ve at least three more years of footage and locations to get up on screen to strengthen that relationship between the franchise and Northern Ireland.”

‘Kept on attracting visitors’

Fred Mawer, 59, has lived in Bath for 20 years and has been working as a tour guide for the last six.

In addition to his usual tours of the city, he has created a bespoke tour of locations featured in Netflix series Bridgerton.

He told Sky News the show had proved “incredibly popular” and had brought some people to Bath “who wouldn’t necessarily have done the tours otherwise”.

He was asked to do a Bridgerton tour in 2021 for the annual Bath Festival and since then he has continued the tours outside of the festival too.

“It’s kept on going, I mean it really does have longevity because obviously there have been more seasons of Bridgerton released,” he said.

“Season one, with an enormous amount of filming in Bath, [was the] biggest thing that’s ever been filmed in the city, 14 locations across the city, but also some more filming for those other seasons as well.

“So it’s kept on attracting visitors and people coming to do the tours in subsequent years.”

But Mr Mawer fears “there may be much less” filming in Bath for season four after reports that the production company had bought a stage set replicating Bath’s Royal Crescent.

The “million-dollar question” for Mr Mawer is what impact that could have going forward on tours specifically designed to showcase some of the show’s locations.

“It’s hard to know at the moment what impact it would have if the production company does not come back and film any more in Bath and just use the stage set,” he added.

“There will certainly still be a market for Bridgerton tours because of all the filming that took place for the first seasons.

“It may not be quite so appealing for people to come on the tours if the filming stops altogether in Bath.”

But given the avid nature of fans’ attachment to some TV series and movies, those involved in the world of set jetting believe its popularity is only set to continue.