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Tourism Management 27 (2006) 247–254
Braveheart-ed Ned Kelly: historic films, heritage tourism
and destination image
Warick Frost
Department of Mangement, Monash University, P.O. Box 1071, Narre Warren, VIC 3805, Australia
Received 7 May 2004; accepted 30 September 2004
Abstract
There has been a great deal of interest in how feature films may create attractive destination images. Research has primarily
focussed on films which promote scenery and to a lesser extent nostalgic rural cultures. In contrast, there hawww.51lunwen.orgs been little attention
paid to historic films. The 2003 release of Ned Kelly provoked a great deal of media interest in how that film might promote tourism
to north-eastern Victoria. This article examines Ned Kelly in terms of issues of authenticity, destination image and the development
of heritage tourism.
r 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Ned Kelly; Destination image; Tourism
A Robin-Hood-like figure y good-looking, brave, afine horseman and bushman and a crack shot,devoted to his mothers and sisters, a man who
treated all women with courtesy, who stole from therich to give to the poor, who dressed himself in hisenemies’ uniforms to outwit them y Such was NedKelly the myth (Jones, 1995, p. 338).Edward ‘Ned’ Kelly is the logical culmination of theAnglophone outlaw hero tradition. His legend harksback, implicitly and explicitly, to the English andIrishhighwaymen. The political nature of the Kellyoutbreak links the bushranger strongly with Anglo-Celtic traditions of protest and struggle, and probably
sees the last use of the medieval outlawrylegislation. Kelly’sactivities and his folklorisationresonate closely with those of American badmenylike [Jesse] James and Billy the Kid in particular.Ned Kelly’s image has been taken up by the massmedia and the other central aspect of twentiethcentury life, tourism, as an appropriate icon ofromance and adventure in the pioneering past (Seal,1996, p. 147).In Monty Python and the Holy Grail a modern-daypoliceman arrestsLauncelot for walking around inmedieval getup and carrying a sword. That cophasthe right idea about history on film (Rosenstone,1995, p. 241).
1. Introduction
In recent years, there has been increasing interest inhow films may shape destination images and resultanttourist expectations, behaviour and numbers. Initially,researchers were content to list film as one of a numberof media which may have such influence (see forexamples Ashworth & Voogd, 1994, p. 49; Urry, 1990.p. 3). In turn, there have been a number of studiesspecifically focussing on how film and television affecttourism (Beeton, 2001; Busby & Klug, 2001; Croy &Walker, 2003; Kim & Richardson, 2003; Riley et al.,1998; Sargent, 1998; Tooke & Baker, 1996; Winter,2002). Generally, the focus of this literature has been on
fictional films and television which create destination
ARTICLE IN PRESS
www.elsevier.com/locate/tourman
0261-5177/$ - see front matter r 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.tourman.2004.09.006
E-mail address: Warwick.frost@busco.monash.edu.au (W. Frost).
images of either highly attractive scenery or quirky,
nostalgic and idyllic rural societies.
The purpose of this article is to extend this discussion
by considering how historic films may create attractive
destination images and accordingly draw tourists to
destinations. Examples of historic films having an