If Harry Potter isn’t your style, they have a dedicated microsite for film locations used in many of the films shot in the UK each year, from films like Atonement and The Duchess to Casino Royale and Sweeney Todd.

It’s not easy getting to Dyersville, Iowa, especially since the picturesque town of 4,000 is 65 miles north of the state’s main highway. Nevertheless, it attracts roughly 65,000 visitors a year, from as far away as Japan and Australia. The reason? Dyersville is home to the Field of Dreams. “We encourage everyone to head to the corn, bring a bat, ball and play, or just sit on the bleachers and dream,” says Julie Kronlage of the Dyersville Area Chamber of Commerce.

Field of Dreams, starring Kevin Costner, was released back in 1989! The article also notes many companies and tourist boards are getting wise to the benefits for both parties:

Wise to the dollars involved, more and more tourism boards are planning promotions around major Hollywood releases. With The Da Vinci Code, Sony entered into partnerships with tourism boards in London, Paris and Edinburgh to market the film, as well as the specific destinations where it was shot. “We started working together in May 2005 because we knew that there would be such an interest in the film,” says Jenni Steele of Visit Scotland. “It’s not everyday that this comes along.”

I was at Cannes last year and a huge number of countries and French provinces had stands showing not only what films had been shot in that location but also the facilities, locations and support they could offer to try and draw more productions to their neck of the woods.

Your tour takes you south to the world famous Scott’s View, with stunning views over the Tweed Valley and the Eildon Hills. From here you travel to Melrose exploring the great Border Abbey of Melrose, burial place of Robert the Bruce, and important centre of the ancient order of the Knights of Templar. Following lunch in Melrose you will travel north to the spooky graveyard of Temple, named after the Templars. After a brief stop her you will make your way to the stunning Rosslyn Chapel, immortalised in Dan Brown’s “DaVinci Code” and you can find out more about the myths and legends surrounding the whereabouts of the “Holy Grail”. From here you return to Edinburgh.

Pride and Prejudice wasn’t the only thing to be filmed in the area either, with the BBC’s Jane Eyre and a number of other productions using locations in and around the same location.

I was lucky enough to go to the Peak District not long ago and you can see many of the photos I took online, which includes shots of many of the locations used in Pride and Prejudice and Jane Eyre.

Locations featured in films and novels can benefit from a boost in tourism from Britain of up to 30 per cent according to new research from Halifax Travel Insurance.

A whopping thirty per cent of people say they are more interested in visiting New Zealand as a direct result of watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy, while Alex Garlands The Beach, and the film adaptation starring Leonardo DiCaprio, has boosted Thailands popularity by 19 per cent.

We’ve seen growth of 50 per cent out of the UK over the last five years, helped by three years of priceless, unofficial marketing from the Lord of the Rings phenomenon, says Barry Eddington, the London-based regional manager for Tourism New Zealand.

Rosslyn Chapel, which features heavily in Dan Browns best-seller, attracted 68,000 visitors last year, compared with 9,500 ten years ago. Stuart Beattie, the chapels director, is anticipating up to 100,000 visitors next year when the film of the book is due to be released.

I’m betting Rome and the Vatican get a serious boost from the release of Angels and Demons, the predecessor to The Da Vinci Code. There are still a few Harry Potter books to make it to the big screen, and no doubt they will continue the trend in boosting UK sites, and with the His Dark Materials trilogy due to hit the big screen soon, I’m betting Oxford gets a lift too.