After the National Film Unit, before social media: Wellington tourism film’s urban narratives and production dynamics 1991–2008

ABSTRACT

This article analyses the development of Wellington tourism film from 1991 to 2008, release years of Absolutely Positively Wellington and Spoil Yourself in Wellington TV commercials, respectively. While performing the textual analysis of five case studies released for domestic TV circulation, it examines their underlying tourism marketing and place-branding dynamics in the broader context of the political, institutional and cultural transformations that marked New Zealand and its capital city from the late 1980s onward. Such political and social context, characterised by the privatisation and sale of public assets and businesses, the transformation of public institutions into profit-driven corporations and the closure or downsizing of government departments and government-led institutions, coincided with the reorganisation of Wellington's economic, institutional and social assets, with the reshaping of the city's identity and with the redefinition of local tourism marketing strategies. This article argues that Wellington tourism film's institutional background started to be increasingly characterised by a process of growing and deepened interaction and partnership between local tourism bodies, creative agencies and private stakeholders. It also intends to trace the succession of different but interconnected urban narratives that informed local tourism film production, before the contemporary narratives about Wellington as a ‘creative city’ took hold.

KEYWORDS:

• New Zealand film
• tourism film
• film tourism
• cinematic city
• Wellington tourism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

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Notes on contributors

Diego Bonelli

Dr Diego Bonelli completed a PhD in Film at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, where he currently works in the Film Programme. His current academic interests include tourism film and documentary production in New Zealand and Australia, with a specific focus on the representation of cities in film. He published articles in Studies on Australasian Cinema, The Journal of Tourism History, The Journal of New Zealand Studies, The Journal of New Zealand and Pacific Studies and The Journal of Italian Cinema and Media Studies. He was the editor, with Dr Alfio Leotta, of Audiovisual Tourism Promotion: A Critical Overview, published by Palgrave McMillan at the end of 2021.