Action!
Last updated on 11.06.2018
Indian film lovers visiting the Innsbruck region can now explore the locations where Bollywood blockbusters such as “Tiger Zinder Hai” were filmed. Innsbruck Tourism has come up with a very interesting innovation, conceived as a full-day tour, to encourage Indian visitors to extend their stay.
India meets Innsbruck
In 2017 the Innsbruck region provided the location for the Indian action film “Tiger Zinda Hai” (Tiger Is Alive), the largest Indian film production to date in Tyrol. Since the start of the year, the Bollywood blockbuster has grossed more than $80 million at box offices throughout the world. The crew was our guest in Tyrol for 16 days, and most of the extensive shooting took place in the Innsbruck region: in Innsbruck’s Old Town, Praxmar and Kühtai. Under the direction of Ali Abbas Zafar, the Indian superstars Salman Khan (36 million Facebook fans, more than 16 million Instagram followers) as agent Tiger and Katrina Kaif as his wife Zoya experienced a series of action-packed adventures amidst the wintry mountains of Tyrol. They were also a sensation on YouTube, as Peter Unsinn, Head of Market Management at Innsbruck Tourism, explains: “The music video alone, featuring the Hofburg (Imperial Palace) and Innsbruck’s Old Town set against the backdrop of the snowy winter landscape, has been seen more than 282 million times and received 1.6 million likes.”
With bus and tour guide to the most romantic locations
The “Bollywood” tour, presented as part of an exclusive screening of the film in Innsbruck, is now taking visitors to these film locations and other Indian production “hot spots”. The tour, accompanied by an English-speaking guide, starts in Innsbruck and takes participants to Praxmar to visit the house which was the setting for the romantic overnight stay of the “Tiger Zinda Hai” stars, and to the Alpengasthof Praxmar. After a short detour to the Seegrube restaurant and a chance to admire the stunning views, the tour takes in a visit to the Imperial Palace and a walk through the Old Town and along the Maria-Theresien-Strasse – all of them important Bollywood locations. Before dinner there’s also a visit to the marvellous Swarovski Crystal Worlds. The tour is an impressive combination of the film’s events and reality. In the bus and on the guide’s tablets, Indian Bollywood films or scenes which were filmed in Innsbruck are shown – in addition to “Tiger Zinda Hai”, for example, there’s “Chal Mere Bhai” (Come on, my brother), “Yuvraaj”, “Action Jackson” and the successful TV series “Pardes mein hai mera dil” (My Heart Lives In A Foreign Land). Making-ofs and interviews with the actors, who share their personal impressions of Innsbruck and Tyrol as a filming location, provide exclusive insights into the filming process. Tour operators can book the tour directly at Innsbruck Information, and they have their own subpage at innsbruck.info (www.innsbruck.info/bollywood) which provides all the relevant information for the travel industry.
The range of tourist offers increases added value
“Our strategy for the Indian market is very clearly focused on Bollywood,” explains Karin Seiler-Lall, Managing Director of Innsbruck Tourism. Bollywood films and TV productions influence the holiday decisions of many guests from India, and a visit to the film locations and settings is a key factor in choosing a holiday in the Innsbruck region. Last year the Innsbruck region recorded around 60,000 overnight stays by visitors from India, an increase of 18% compared to the same period in the previous year. Seiler-Lall concludes: “Our ‘Bollywood’ strategy has been very successful in introducing ourselves to an audience of millions, and we’re now very pleased to be able to build on this success with a specific, bookable offer. As a full-day tour, it’s very clearly designed to extend the length of visitors’ stays, which will in turn generate higher added value for all the service providers in the future.”