During yesterday’s Holiday Parks Association of New Zealand Conference, head of Tourism New Zealand Kevin Bowler revealed that The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey will make its Blu-ray and DVD debut in mid-2013.
Included in the Blu-ray and DVD sets will be a New Zealand tourism feature (directed by Peter Jackson).
“Internationally, we really want people to make the connection The Hobbit films were filmed here in New Zealand,” said Bowler. “Our research has found that there is a very high level of awareness to that fact, which is much broader than in what might be called… the geeky community.”
While a specific release date has not been confirmed, Bowler hopes that this will encourage even more tourists to visit the country. (A year after the release of The Lord of the Rings: the Return of the King, surveys discovered that six percent of New Zealand tourists had been persuaded to some extent by the Lord of the Rings films; one percent of these arrivals were specifically because of the films.)
At least 300 journalists will arrive in Wellington for the November premiere of An Unexpected Journey (typically, Tourism New Zealand brings in about 400 journalists per year).
“If that was to happen next year, we’d have 150,000 people floating around the country because of the first Hobbit film, which is great.”
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