Hit Drama Series Fuels Location Tourism

A recent surge in demand for breaks to the filming location of a period television drama has been reported by travel companies.
Sales for Downton Abbey coach tours are believed to have snowballed in line with the hit drama's recent success at various television awards.
Despite not winning any Baftas in 2011, for which it was nominated for 3, the TV series went on to scoop four Emmys in September for best direction, best mini-series, best writing and best supporting actress. Its success across the pond was also sealed by a prestigious Golden Globe award in January, followed by the coveted Best Drama accolade at the UK National Television Awards.
Door2Tour.com claims that the sudden clamour for coach trips to Highclere Castle, which took off in February and has continued throughout March, has left coach breaks to the venue so few and far between that many hopeful passengers have been turned away.
Kate Glanfield, Web Manager of the firm said: "We've had so much demand for Downton Abbey in recent weeks that we're not able to service all of our enquiries. We were down to the last one or two seats by the end of March and we're still getting interest now. We're literally turning people away."
The struggle to meet demand is fuelled as tour operators become unsuccessful in getting tickets to the castle. With the venue only open for limited periods between July and September and three ad hoc weeks in the year due to filming, combined with a limited daily capacity, there are
simply not enough tickets to go around. 2012 is now fully booked, with 2013 already filling up quickly.
Downton Abbey portrays the lives of the Crawley family and the servants who work for them during the early 1900s. After a highly acclaimed Series 1 and Series 2, filming for Series 3 has already started filming and will be broadcast in September 2012.
(GK)