UK Destination South West explains why literary connections are so important when marketing to German cruise passengers
Destination South West is seeing a continued growth in the number of port calls from German cruise liners and the interest shows no signs of abating thanks to the region’s fascinating literary and filming connections.
In Cornwall Falmouth Port has seen a doubling in German passenger numbers in the second half of the decade which has resulted in a trebling of the overall spend per passenger – now reaching nearly £100 per head. Mike Reynolds, Port Operations Director for Falmouth says, “Thanks to all the literary connections and resultant filming, the South West is particularly popular with German visitors and latest figures from Falmouth Port show that annual spend from that market sector is close to £1m.”
The Isles of Scilly are another favourite film location with German film crews and as a result St Mary’s received nearly 1000 German cruise visitors in 2010.
Dorset has also seen an increase in German visitors with Portland reporting three German cruise calls in 2011. May saw the arrival of the ‘Sea Cloud’, not once, but twice, carrying between 40-50 German passengers and the third German cruise call, in July, saw the return of Peter Deilman’s ‘Deutschland’, carrying over 400 passengers.
Portland is ideally positioned for a visit to one of the UK’s most famous World Heritage sites and over 100 Deutschland passengers chose to visit the historic stone circle of Stonehenge – itself the subject of many literary musings, none of which solve the riddle of its true significance and meaning. Other visitors ventured out to Dorchester, a traditional English town with a number of 18th century buildings and much featured in many of Thomas Hardy’s world famous novels under the name of Casterbridge.
‘Sea Cloud’ passengers just needed to use a little imagination to visualise the landscape as it might have been when dinosaurs dominated what has become the World Heritage Jurassic Coast, with its hilly landscapes and lush green countryside. The popularity of films like Jurassic Park makes this an easy leap of the imagination. The colourful Sub-Tropical Gardens at Abbotsbury also proved to be a popular excursion and with Abbotsbury Swannery featuring as a location for one of the Harry Potter films, the literary and filming connections just keep on building.
In Devon, Ilfracombe Port which recently played host to the Hanseatic, can also boast its own piece of literary history based on a true event involving the young Kaiser (when he was Prince William of Prussia) and a certain Mr Alfred Price who took it upon himself to give the Kaiser “a bloody nose” because the man who was to become Germany’s last Kaiser was embarking on some over zealous stone throwing on the local beach - the whole story being recorded for posterity in a poem!
On the opposite side of the Devon coastline Torbay’s most recent figures show three visits from ships with predominantly German passengers including the Delphin Voyager, Athena and Albatross, with a total of 1,670 passengers landed ashore.
The ports that serve Devon and Cornwall have one author in particular to thank for the increase in visitors from Germany: Rosamunde Pilcher. German television has shot more than 75 Pilcher films and locations in Devon include Exeter where ‘Lala’ and ‘The Magic of Love’ were shot, Sidmouth and Ottery St Mary which were also locations for ‘The Magic of Love’ and the brooding magnificence that is Dartmoor where ‘Special Loving’ was partly filmed.
Born in 1924 in Lelant St Ives, Cornwall is probably Rosamunde’s truly spiritual home and so many of her emotive stories and characters are set in the beautiful countryside of Cornwall. The Port of Falmouth has benefited from the release of ‘The Shell Seekers’ film, released in 1998 and based on the Rosamunde Pilcher novel. It included locations such as the cliffs of Lands End, Lamorna Cove and Marazion. A mini series was later released in 2006 with additional scenes being shot at the ancient St Michael’s Mount and Prideaux Place at Padstow.
Other productions such as ‘Coming Home’, also released in 1998 with its succession of mini series were also filmed at Prideaux Place and Marazion as well as Lelant and Penzance. The sequel to Coming home, ‘Nancherrow’, released in 1999 were based in numerous locations along the entire stretch of Cornwall’s North coast, those being Chapel Porth, Wheal Coates, Towan Head, Newquay, Bodmin, and Wenford Railway.
Other notable Cornish locations are those of the historic fishing village of Mullion Cove on the Lizard, with its historic cottage featured in ‘Amazing Grace’ ‘A Secret to Tell’ and ‘Another View’, the old boat house back dropping the love scene in ‘Toby’, and the cobbled quay used in horse carriage shots in ‘Carousel’.
The Destination South West website: www.destinationsouthwest.co.uk has more on filming locations under Cruise Themes and also lists the distances from the nearest ports, as well as estimated time to travel to the attraction from the port.
Destination South West actively promotes the region to ensure that the South West continues to attract high profile cruise ships to its ports. Partners include ports, local government authorities, tourist attractions, and other organisations with an interest in the cruise industry.