Savannah has a long and storied history with the movie industry, and it's paved the way for a specific type of tourism -- the movie tour. Now, another chapter of that history could mean big things for Savannah tourism.
Everyday, movie buffs find their way onto the Savannah Movie Tours bus to take a look at the Savannah that doubles as a Hollywood film set.
It's not surprising that disney's new movie will be great for business says Ron Higgins, President and CEO of Savannah Movie Tours.
"Add a lot of opportunity for people to see those locations where their projects will be shot around Savannah and around the area," says Higgins, who started the company six years ago.
The tour is already popular, especially among fans of "Forrest Gump" and other films.
"We have 110 movie locations downtown, over 490 county-wide, so right now we visit about 70," says Higgins.
Visitors on the tour say the prospect of seeing the new Miley Cyrus movie filmed here is exciting.
"That's really cool because you know where we're from, not many, well not really anything's been filmed where we're from, so it's interesting knowing everything's been filmed here," says Lanna Witt, visiting from Mississippi.
"That'd be awesome maybe to see her and I'm looking forward to it," says Brian Morgenroth from New Jersey.
If the tween star's new movie is a hit, they might create a new tour around it. Higgins hopes it's an indicator of more good things to come.
"We're always waiting for Hollywood to shoot a movie here, and now these independent filmmakers are coming to the surface, so 2009's going to be the start of something big," he says.
Higgins says the first movie filmed in Savannah was in 1915, and 89 projects have been shot here since then.
According to the Governor's Office, nine feature films, two TV series and a TV pilot were produced in Georgia in the first quarter of 2009.
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement