London - When it comes to choosing a holiday, some of us opt for sun, others go in search of culture … and some, it seems, look no further than the TV guide.
A fifth of British holidaymakers admit to being “TV tourists”, who go abroad to see the settings of their favourite television programmes and films, a survey found.
According to the research, by the Post Office, 19 percent of us have travelled somewhere simply because it was a film or TV location, and a further 20 percent hope to in the next five years.
Of course, it helps that most of those destinations are also fairly desirable in their own right.
The most popular was New York, with 39 percent of TV tourists saying they would like to see the city where the likes of Seinfeld and Sex And The City were filmed.
The second most desirable destination was Hawaii, which has hosted TV shows such as Charlie’s Angels, Baywatch and Hawaii Five-0.
Los Angeles, the location for a string of movies including Pretty Woman, was third on 22 percent, followed by Rome on 21 percent. The Italian capital was the setting for classic movies including La Dolce Vita and Roman Holiday.
Fifth was New Zealand, where The Lord Of The Rings trilogy was set. Other popular destinations included Las Vegas, setting for 2009 comedy The Hangover, and the Greek islands, where 2008 film Mamma Mia was shot.
The TV tourist is one of seven new types of holidaymaker identified by Post Office researchers, based on a survey of 2 000 adults.
The others include long haul lovers, who think nothing of travelling long distance for a weekend, “in-tents characters”, who prefer a back-to-basics camping trip, and health trippers, whose perfect holiday is a trip to a yoga retreat. Another category is that of the “Facebook boaster”. They spend much of their time away making friends jealous with updates about their trip.
In fact, the pressure to look good on social networking sites is so great that 34 percent of holidaymakers admit to faking fun photos purely to impress their friends.
The survey also identified “senior city-zens”, older tourists in search of an exciting city break, and lastly beached males, who are happy with a beach – any beach. - Daily Mail