Province hopes film industry could boost tourism

As Nova Scotia's film industry grows, we're increasingly seeing some of our favourite spots pop up in TV shows and films.

Now the industry is partnering with the province to explore potential spin-off benefits for our tourism industry.

Screen Nova Scotia's executive director points to the significant interest over the past decade in Oak Island thanks to the History Channel's TV show following a group searching for a legendary treasure.

“I hear stories about the tours that are available down in Oak Island selling out in 90 seconds for the entire season,” Laura Mackenzie explained.

“There's so much more we could do to be leveraging that kind of asset. It just ultimately creates incredible economic benefits to increase tourism.”

And that could be a boost for some rural areas of the province, like Yarmouth's Cape Forchu, featured in the movie The Lighthouse, and the spots along the South Shore like The Ovens Park, seen in Netflix's Locke & Key and Season 4 of The Sinner.

Screen Nova Scotia has been working with Tourism Nova Scotia and the province's Department of Communities, Culture, Tourism and Heritage to investigate the best way to allow fans to explore their favourite film and TV locations.

“We don't know a lot right now and we need to do a bit more research on how we can leverage that,” Mackenzie told CityNews Halifax.

“It's coming together, but it's slow. We're hoping to get something off the ground this year.”

Mackenzie said 2022 was a very busy year for our film industry, generating $180 million in economic benefit for the province and 2023 is on track for similar results.