A recent NZ Herald article suggests that the Lord of the Rings effect might not have been as significant as we think. According to former Screen Council head Tim Thorpe, "Film tourism (ie tourism influenced by film production and exhibition) is an established fact, but the actual facts seem hard to establish."
"I was reminded of this at the recent Cineposium conference in Wellington ... Three speakers took the stage but the actual amount of qualitative data presented was not strong."
Despite an Oxford study suggesting that tourism benefits can be around 17-20%, Thorpe has difficulty correlating it with a survey carried out by Tourism New Zealand, which showed that in just one year, 112,000 people cited Lord of the Rings as one of the reasons they decided to come to New Zealand, although just over 10,000 said the movie was their main reason for visiting. Check out the full article here