Set-Jet 25
The World Screen Tourism Summit
Rewind: Reflections, Insights, and Birmingham
Authored by Erik Nachtrieb, CEO and Co-founder of SetJetters
Set-Jet 25 brought together some of the most forward-thinking voices working in film tourism today. Whether you were there as a delegate or couldn’t make the trip, I wanted to share a few standout moments, not just what was discussed, but how I interpreted it, the conversations the panels sparked, and the unexpected insights that surfaced in the hallways, network room, cafés, and even out on the streets of Birmingham.
Key Takeaways From the Speakers
Set-Jet 25 brought together an impressive lineup this year, with sessions designed to let attendees experience nearly every panel. Each speaker came to screen tourism from a different perspective, geography, industry sector, research, or content creation, offering a panoramic view of where the field stands today and where it needs to go next.
You can see the full itinerary here: SetJet 25
Speakers & Themes (A few that stood out to me)
“Screen Tourism: The Global Dimension”
Stefan Roesch, AFCI Board Member & Co-Manager, Film Otago Southland (NZ)
Tolene Van-der-Merwe, Director UK & Ireland, Malta Tourism Authority“Attracting the SetJetter — Who Are They and How Do We Reach Them?”
Jeroen Huijsdens, Filmtaal (Netherlands)“It’s Not a Game! The Games Sector & Screen Tourism”
Kate Edwards, CXO & Co-Founder, SetJetters“A Winning ROI? Measuring Screen Tourism Effectiveness”
Leon Forde, CEO, Olsberg SPI“Gen-Z: The SetJetting Generation?”
Melissa Maddock, Travel Content Creator“The Regenerative Challenge: A Truly Sustainable Future for Screen Tourism”
Multi-speaker panel
My Take
What became obvious across sessions is that the SetJetting market is still unstructured, siloed, and unevenly understood across the industry.
Film commissions recognize the value but lack budget or directive, tourism boards acknowledge the potential but seldom buy in, for the most part, studios don’t see the value to them, and most destinations simply don’t know what to do because they have no tools, no frameworks, and no way to measure the value of SetJetting beyond anecdote.
Below is a breakdown of my insights and where the industry must go next.
The Industry Understands the ROI but Struggles to Act on It.
Film commissions are the first to understand the long-tail value of screen tourism, yet they often struggle to activate it. They face three barriers:
No mandate to invest in screen tourism
No dedicated budget to support it
Difficulty convincing tourism bodies to prioritize it
How do we expand a film commission’s agenda so SetJetting becomes part of its core mandate rather than a “nice to have”?
This was the recurring tension across many conversations: the desire is there, but the structure is not.
Destinations Want Measurable Tools
There is a gap between fans showing up and partners having the ability to capture, understand, or activate that demand.
This is why physical screen-tourism installations are still the industry’s default; they are visible, tangible, and measurable.
But installations alone cannot capture the long tail. Nor can surveys, which were still the dominant measurement method presented at the conference.
Survey data is helpful, but it is:
slow
biased by memory
incomplete
not tied to actual on-site engagement
By contrast, digital point-of-engagement data, such as what SetJetters captures, reveals how people truly use filming locations:
where they go
which scenes they care about
what they share
how scenes cluster into itineraries
economic behavior surrounding the visit
Several speakers noted that the economic impact of screen tourism is underestimated. The raw data confirms it. Survey findings at the conference mirrored what our digital data constantly shows: SetJetting is far more economically powerful than the industry realizes.
This matters for:
Studios that can justify incentive value through demonstrated tourism impact
Film commissions, which can show year-over-year ROI from their filmography and lobby for larger incentives.
Tourism boards, which are beginning to understand that SetJetting has been identified as the #1 global travel motivator (Expedia Group Unpack’d ’26)
The industry is ready for leadership that organizes the new, fragmented available digital data.
The Emotional Pull of Scenes Is the Real Engine
Every speaker touched on this, directly or indirectly: A scene is not content. It is identity and belonging. For a region, a film becomes part of its cultural fabric, a point of pride and a storytelling anchor.
For a SetJetter, the world created is the star:
the geography
the cultural texture
the architecture
the intangible mood of the place
And most importantly: Everything “beyond the frame” becomes the real experience - this is why screen tourism has such staying power. People aren’t chasing media clips; they’re chasing the emotional and cultural environments those clips represent.
Fans Want Agency, and FIT Behavior Is the Future
Today’s SetJetter is a free independent traveler (FIT) at heart:
They explore on their own time.
They curate their own experiences.
They crave authenticity over installations.
They stay longer, spend more, and disperse better.
When the scene exists in its authentic location, the SetJetter slows down, notices more, and naturally engages with local culture, local businesses, and the environment that shaped the world of the story. When you combine authentic scene locations with optional, well-placed physical enhancements, the experience becomes unbeatable.
This is the model the industry should be championing.
Sustainability: Everyone Agrees It’s Crucial, But No One Has a Roadmap
The sustainability panel circled an important truth: SetJetting impact is almost always unexpected and unprepared for. Why?
Destinations don’t know which titles will “win.”
They underestimate the scale of economic potential.
They lack strategies for visitor management.
Few have a plan for how to protect places that suddenly become culturally significant.
The consensus: Collaboration and sustainability best practices are urgently needed. There was no clear agreement on the right strategy, but a clear recognition that one must be built.
It may be time for SetJetters to participate formally in shaping that discussion.
Choosing Titles to Invest In: A More Sophisticated Decision Matrix Is Needed
Choosing a “winning title” to invest in was referenced, but currently, this process is often instinctual, not strategic. The industry needs a framework that considers:
size and loyalty of the fandom
streaming longevity
genre-based travel behavior
crew and cast social amplification
regional fit and cultural relevance
multi-title clustering opportunities
And a critical point I feel was missed: Older titles are gold. They are proven, consistent, and evergreen. A resource to be harvested every year. Regions too often chase the new, for screen tourism, when their cultural identity and tourism power often lie in the classics.
Where blockbuster titles are absent, the answer is simple: Lean into the filmography of the region as a whole. Promote SetJetting holistically.
Conclusion: What This Means for the Industry
Throughout the conference, I found myself nodding in agreement. Not because the problems were new, but because the gaps identified across panels align exactly with what we see every day in SetJetters’ global stakeholder conversations. Screen tourism isn’t a theory; it’s lived behavior on the platform, measurable, mappable, predictable, and culturally powerful.
The challenge now is moving from recognition to infrastructure, anecdote to activation, installation to ecosystem.
Screen tourism is here. It’s growing, and every speaker, panel, and conversation at Set-Jet 25 made it clear: the industry is hungry for leadership, clarity, and tools that turn potential into practice.
Conversations That Carried the Event
One of the best parts of Set-Jet 25 wasn’t only on the stage; it was also in the conversations around the venue.
Over coffee between panels, I spoke with Tolene Van-der-Merwe, Director UK & Ireland, Malta Tourism Authority, regarding my recent visit to Malta and what an undiscovered gem it is for SetJetting, which is truly embedded in 7,000 years of history and culture. They have a deep understanding of screen tourism, its value, and she shared that she is now looking to develop a digital screen tourism ecosystem across Malta.
Over dinner, I had a wonderful and protracted conversation with Chris Johnson and Rob Way, Tourism Media Group. We explored the discoverability of all things “beyond the frame”, advertising, and how to give economic leverage to Main Street and “near scene businesses" as the SetJetting vertical becomes isolated and tangible to attract during travel.
SetJetters was also represented in the speaker lineup with our own Kate Edwards, CXO & Co-Founder, and many delegates reflected on our perspective regarding video game scenes as also being a powerful driver of screen tourism. In addition, the discussion around gamifying filming locations and how this approach is already integrated into the SetJetters core loop user experience generated significant interest and follow-up conversations. Delegates were particularly engaged by the fresh lens Kate brought to the untapped potential of incorporating games alongside film and television titles in regional strategies.
I met with Yukyung Baik, Ph.D, FilmAr, where we had a very exciting conversation about the future of fan location engagement and the road map to utilizing augmented reality in the SetJetting digital ecosystem, discussing IP rights, studio partnerships (SONY approached SetJetters on this), and practical deployment. In addition, we strategized about the organization of South Korea and Asia around SetJetting and localization.
Dustin Chodorowcz, Nordicity, grabbed me for conversations around our raw SetJetting data from locations. We are meeting while I’m in London.
Because of the diversity of attendees, I was able to have discussions across the entire industry. I spoke with several properties looking to leverage their existing filming locations, The National Trust, Alnwick Castle, and Blenheim Palace.
One suggestion raised during the conference was the idea of “just putting up a film location sign” as an easy way to capitalize on SetJetting. In reality, it’s far more complex. I encouraged Jane Ridley, Oregon Film Office, Oregon Film Trail, to develop a case study that demonstrates how physical signage, when paired with digital scene overlays, creates a powerful hybrid experience for FIT travelers. Something she has done.
You are really one of us, was a great compliment coming from Jeroen Huijsdens, Filmtaal (Netherlands), who, after I related my global SetJetting escapades, realized I wasn’t a Tech bro corporate wonk, but an actual SetJetter obsessed with locations, culture, and film, and goes to great lengths to stand in the location. We discussed his podcast and lamented its being in Dutch, as we would love to host it on SetJetters.
Luke Flynn, ORNC Estate Operations Manager, and I, over a glass of wine, brainstormed how to create a physical film locations tour experience with a guide, using the existing SetJetters partnership with Visit Greenwich and the Old Royal Naval College. This preserves both the authentic human experience and jobs, while enhancing it with a digital experience that can also stand independent for the FIT tourist, ultimately creating revenue for the location. We will continue our meeting at the ORNC in the next few weeks. We welcome your insight!
These off-stage moments reinforce something I think is essential: The biggest leaps in screen tourism often start inside conversations, not boardrooms and Zoom meetings.
Those chats also made it clear that Set-Jet 25 has become a kind of neutral meeting ground, a space where commissions, studios, properties, tourism boards, and tech can speak honestly about what's working, what's not, and what needs to be built next.
I didn’t get to speak with Richard Milkins, Visitor Economy Manager, Black Country Living Museum, but I did take a side quest to Dudley while at the conference to visit the museum.
A Bit of SetJetting in the Birmingham Region
Since film tourism is literally what we do, I carved out a moment to set-jet a bit myself while I was in town.
I visited Black Country Living Museum, and the experience was a reminder of why this phenomenon is so powerful. Standing there, seeing the real architecture, the textures, the environment brings you closer to the world on screen and gives you a deeper sense of the world used to create these screen moments. Knocking off my Peaky Blinder scenes, taking ShotSyncs, and posting them to social media enabled me to interact with the environment, businesses, and cosplaying employees. What a wonderful experience! From the 3 hours I spent on the property, here are my highlights:
Visiting Peaky Blinders scenes before my 24-year-old daughter and “super fan” could collect any scenes.
Speaking at length with the vintage motorcycle shopkeeper about riding Royal Enfields in the foothills of the Himalayas.
And a story I will keep telling for years, purchasing fish and chips up the street, on the museum property, walking them down to the authentic Bottle and Glass Pub on a cold winter's day, and having a pint with lunch amid the sawdust floor and open coal stove.
You never know where SetJetting will take you.
In Birmingham, I chased a scene into the Jewelry district from an unknown, domestic “short” film I had yet to watch, Titanic Love. But the location looked epic! I nailed the ShotSync and became curious about the location itself. Venturing in, I found another amazing pub I would have never sought out nor known existed. I settled in for another pint and the ambiance of the location.
Small interactions like that push home the point: Screen tourism isn’t an abstract trend; it’s an everyday economic driver for real people.
Travel Notes: Why Birmingham Worked
If you didn’t attend this year, I’ll say this: Birmingham was a genuinely impressive host city.
It’s a quick, easy trip from London. The venues were accessible. And the city itself has this creative energy bubbling under the surface that makes it an ideal place for SetJetting. It's the kind of location that becomes richer the more you learn about its history and culture.
Where Set-Jet 25 will be next year, I don’t know yet, but Birmingham was a great choice. And I hope attendees keep exploring these host cities the way fans explore filming locations: with curiosity, openness, and maybe a little camera roll full of ShotSyncs.
Looking Ahead: Keeping the Conversation Alive
Here I will comment, Martin Evans, Managing Partner, The Tourism Business, and Organizer of Set-Jet 25, pulled off an excellent event, which was well attended, encouraged organic engagement, and put a lot of thought leaders in one place with those exploring questions and looking for solutions in SetJetting. Well done, Martin and your staff!
One thing this year’s event made clear is how essential it is to keep the momentum going between conferences. All of these insights, data, local stories, challenges, and innovations are only truly valuable when they’re shared.
SetJetters is deeply engaged in this space. We’re listening. We’re experimenting. We’re building tools that turn filming locations into long-tail economic drivers. And we are closely connected with the people leading this movement.
If something here resonated with you, reach out. Not because we want to be “on the nose” about being thought leaders, but because this entire marketplace grows stronger when we talk to each other, learn from each other, and build new partnerships that push screen tourism forward.
And if you did attend Set-Jet 25, I’d love to hear how you experienced it. If you didn’t, I hope this gave you a clear window into what you missed and an invitation to be part of the next one.
We look forward to seeing SetJetting ShotSyncs from your locations around the world!
