WORLD SCREEN TOURISM SUMMIT TO PREMIERE IN BIRMINGHAM NEXT NOVEMBER
News | 20 Dec 2024The first-ever World Screen Tourism Summit – SET-JET25 – will take place on Friday 21st November 2025 at the International Convention Centre, Birmingham.
The event is designed to showcase UK and international best practice in the growing market for “set-jetting”, the phenomenon of tourists visiting locations they have seen on films and TV. Set-jetting has been named by numerous tour operators and consultancies as one of the top global travel trends for 2025.
The Summit is aimed at tourism operators, destination and attraction marketing directors, hotel groups, and screen and film commissions from the UK and overseas, with invitations to be sent worldwide in the new year. The organiser of the event is Martin Evans, Managing Partner of The Tourism Business, whose company also founded the annual UK National Hotel Marketing Conference, curates the programme for VAC, the annual conference for visitor attractions, and ran the London International Film Tourism Conference on two previous occasions.
The World Screen Tourism Summit will hear from expert speakers from around the world on film tourism marketing, destination branding, PR and social media campaign development, visitor management and film tourism licensing. The Summit will be supported by lead partners West Midlands Combined Authority, West Midlands Growth Company, VisitBritain and the British Film Commission. The host city, Birmingham, was chosen from a shortlist of cities, which demonstrated strong tourism product and screen heritage.
The Summit’s launch comes at the end of one of the most important years for screen tourism, with movies like “Paddington in Peru” and “Gladiator II”, and TV series such as “Emily in Paris”, “Bridgerton” and “The White Lotus” having galvanised consumers, the tourism industry and the media into action.
In the West Midlands, programmes over the past 12 months such as “Joan”, “This Town” and “Late Night Lycett” have put the region into living rooms across the UK. The final chapter of the Birmingham-based Peaky Blinders story will see a spin-off film released by the end of 2025.
Richard Parker, Mayor of the West Midlands, said:
“The global success of Peaky Blinders has shone a spotlight on our region’s rich history, stunning architecture, and iconic canals. Hosting the first-ever World Screen Tourism Summit is a fantastic opportunity to build on that momentum.
“We’re working hard to make it easier for filmmakers to bring their productions here, tapping into our talented workforce and driving investment. More productions mean more exciting jobs for local people and another step towards making the West Midlands a world-class hub for storytelling.”
Adrian Wootton OBE, Chief Executive of the British Film Commission, said:
“The UK’s film and TV industry has consistently attracted the world’s largest productions with our diverse range of filming locations and talented crew base.
“The BFC has made a commitment to spotlighting the exceptional range of our film and TV industry and last year we were proud to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with VisitBritain with the intention of boosting screen tourism throughout the UK."
“We’re delighted to support SET-JET25, showcasing best practice in the growing market for set-jetting, inspired by the UK’s world-class film and TV industry.”
VisitBritain CEO Patricia Yates said:
“We know films and TV shows are powerful motivators for travel and we’re delighted to support the World Screen Tourism Summit in Birmingham. This is a valuable opportunity to hear from creative industry leaders and destinations on harnessing the opportunities in screen tourism and to put Britain’s outstanding visitor offer in the spotlight.
“It is also timely as we gear up to launch our ‘Starring GREAT Britain’ campaign in January 2025, which sees Britain the star of the show. Our research shows more than 9-out-of-10 potential visitors to the UK would be keen to visit film and TV locations and places seen-on-screen. Our campaign is harnessing the huge draw of screen tourism to inspire visitors to put themselves in the picture, choose Britain for their next trip and to explore more when they come, with that spending boosting regional economies.”
Speakers for the World Screen Tourism Summit will be announced in January, and a website will be set up for tourism and screen industry practitioners to register for the event, which will not only have a main conference stream on Friday 21st November, but will also have a pre-conference dinner, and post-conference familiarisation visits running alongside.
Meanwhile, those interested can register for advance information at [email protected].