Eurostar has agreed a multi-million pound global promotional partnership with Columbia Pictures, VisitBritain, VisitLondon, VisitScotland and Maison de la France to capitalise on the May release of the £40m film version of Dan Brown’s
The Da Vinci Code.
Primarily aimed at boosting film tourism to three main cities – London, Paris and Edinburgh – Eurostar will work closely with British, French and Scottish tourist board representatives in the run-up to the release of the highly-anticipated blockbuster.
A series of cross-media marketing initiatives will be used, including urging tourists to take their own Da Vinci Code trail, following in the footsteps of the film’s protagonist Robert Langdon – played by Tom Hanks in the film.
According to VisitBritain, one in five of Britain’s international visitors are inspired to travel to Britain by the images they see in films or on television.
VisitBritain’s chief executive Tom Wright said: “Sure to be one of the biggest movies of 2006, this film has huge potential for us to encourage more visitors.”
The Da Vinci Code was partly filmed at Shepperton Studios, close to locations including the Temple Church in London’s Holborn and Lincoln Cathedral, which was used instead of Westminster Abbey, which refused to allow the film crew access on religious grounds.
A Westminster Abbey spokesperson said: "Although the book is a fine page turner, we cannot commend or endorse the contentious and wayward religious and historic suggestions made in the book – nor its views of Christianity and the New Testament. It would therefore have been inappropriate to film scenes from the book here.”
There will also be no special measures put in place to deal with any potential increase in the number of visitors, according to the Abbey spokesperson: “There are no special measures in place because we are well-used to dealing with large numbers but this is by no means the first time that the Abbey has appeared in literature and we will deal with the resulting inquiries to the best of our ability. This is in keeping with our Benedictine tradition of welcoming visitors." Details: www.eurostar.com
