Visit Scotland | Alba
Article published 23/01/2024

New storytelling and media collaboration

We’re working with National Geographic CreativeWorks on a new storytelling and media collaboration targeting US and UK visitors. The partnership has been launched to capitalise on the screen tourism trend.

The two-month marketing campaign uses bespoke photography by National Geographic CreativeWorks, part of The Walt Disney Company. It will spotlight locations which have inspired or featured in movie and TV classics from Disney/Pixar, Star Wars, Lucasfilm and Marvel.

Online articles and images have been published on National Geographic’s digital platform and will be promoted through its social media channels from January until March 2024.

To complement the activity, a 30-second advert spotlighting Scottish locations that have inspired Disney stories will be shown on Disney+ in the US over the same period.

The importance of screen tourism

Screen tourism (or set-jetting) is set to continue this year, highlighted by travel experts, Expedia and Skyscanner.

According to Expedia, more than half of travellers say that TV shows and movies inspire their travel plans.

It also showed nearly 30% say they are more influential than ever before – with TV shows providing a bigger draw for destinations than Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok.

Locations and films/TV series featured include:

 

  • Culross, Fife (Marvel’s Captain America: The First Avenger)
  • Dunnottar Castle, Aberdeenshire (Disney/Pixar’s Brave)
  • Edinburgh (Marvel’s Avengers: Infinity War)
  • Glasgow (Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny)
  • Glen Tilt, Perthshire (Star Wars: Andor)
  • St Abbs, Scottish Borders (Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame)
Gallery item 0 Gallery item 1 Gallery item 2 Gallery item 3 Gallery item 4 Gallery item 5

Working with National Geographic CreativeWorks and Disney+ not only gives us the opportunity to shout about film locations in the context of Indiana Jones, Star Wars, Brave and the Avengers, but also to tap into the huge UK and US audiences across their channels.

This allows us to inspire and influence potential visitors to include Scotland in their future travel plans.

Vicki Miller, Director of Marketing at VisitScotland

There are few places I've travelled that have such a mythical quality about them – almost literary. Each place I visited on my trip to Scotland felt like the setting for an entire story to unfold.

At every turn, I was impressed by the natural beauty of the landscape, the rich sense of history, and the dramatic changes in the weather and light.

Acacia Johnson, National Geographic Photographer

Take a look at activity

Related links

Our marketing calendar

Discover how you can align with our marketing activity throughout the year to get the greatest reach.

Digital skills

Learn how to improve your digital skills and enhance the online performance of your Scottish tourism business.