Greg Miller blurts out a classic movie line -- "I'll be back!" -- as he saunters down the Fourth Street dock as another sunny day of filming The Big Year gets underway.

"I've never been on a movie set before," the jovial birding guide from Sugarcreek, Ohio, says. "This place is fabulous."

Miller was hired as a birding consultant for David Frankel's comedy starring Owen Wilson, Jack Black and Steve Martin as three rival obsessive birdwatchers who compete to find the most rare offshore birds.

When Miller returns for his own enjoyment, he'll be partaking in film tourism. It's a growing phenomenon where the production of a film or television series in a particular destination inspires tourists to travel there.

Famous examples include Alnwick Castle in Northumberland, U.K., which has attracted millions since doubling as Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the Harry Potter films; the Lord of the Rings trilogy, which did for New Zealand what Crocodile Dundee did for Australia; and the Wallace Monument in Scotland, a Braveheart-driven tourist magnet.

It's not that this picturesque West Coast hamlet has trouble attracting tourists, but if Vancouver Island North Film Commission's Joan Miller has her way, they'll be coming for more than surfing, beachcombing and ocean kayaking.

The Big Year, she says, presents an ideal opportunity to showcase Vancouver Island as a birdwatching hotspot.

"Birdwatching has been rated the top tourism driver in the world," says the film commissioner, flipping through a binder featuring related attractions from Tofino Bird and Breakfast to Alberni Rainbird Excursions.

Through the commission, known as INFilm, Miller is pushing for a potential film tourism partnership with B.C.'s Ministry of Tourism, Culture and the Arts, regional tourism offices, film commissions and filmmakers, to be launched to coincide with release of The Big Year.

"It's a great opportunity for us to marry film and tourism," says Miller, who hopes to launch the initiative with a map showcasing birdwatching opportunities. INFilm already has a starter B.C. film tourism map on its website.

"More and more tourism operators have identified an opportunity to leverage a TV series or a feature film and their locations and the interest people have with the big screen into package tours," Miller notes.

Vancouver Set Tours, for instance, has capitalized on the popularity of movies filmed on the Lower Mainland, especially the Twilight saga, and offers sightseeing packages to locations.

You don't even have to leave Vancouver Island to enter the Twilight zone. Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner filmed scenes for New Moon at Incinerator Rock in Pacific Rim National Park last year. The filmmakers also covertly captured footage for Eclipse on private forest land and the Nanaimo River near WildPlay Nanaimo.

"It's beneficial from a product placement standpoint," says WildPlay marketing manager Brandon Williams. "Peripheral marketing activities promoting the fact these destinations have film industry travellers have a lot of value."

Miller got the ultimate taste of film tourism's lasting benefits during a trip in New Zealand after she chaired an Association of Film Commissioners International's annual Cineposium conference in Wellington last year.

"I had to laugh. Every small community I went to -- even though Lord of the Rings has been out for years -- still has sandwich boards or tours where you can go see a place somebody filmed in, like farmers' fields where the big battles were."

Sharon Lingenfelter, executive director of Tourism Tofino, says the community is still buzzing about The Big Year.

"The actors and crews were delightful, courteous and thoughtful about local residents and birding experts who got to be extras," she says.

"It introduces people to what a unique little piece of paradise we have here."

Indeed, there are plenty of other locations worldwide that have benefited from film tourism. In Santa Barbara county's Santa Ynez Valley, busloads of tourists still flock to wineries and restaurants featured in Sideways, in Rome, the Trevi Fountain still draws millions of visitors 50 years after La Dolce Vita opened, and the DaVinci Code has boosted business at the Vatican.

Will this translate into a film tourism industry in Victoria, perhaps with stops at Hatley Castle (X-Men), Fan Tan Alley (Bird on a Wire) and the Blue Bridge (Excess Baggage)?

"It's certainly of interest," says Tourism Victoria CEO Rob Gialloreto. "We defer that work to the film commission, and we're trying to work closer together. Any time we have a niche, like when a film is done in Victoria, it's a good thing to promote."

mreid@tc.canwest.com

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Nanaimo River is one of the locations featured in the upcoming Twilight saga film Eclipse:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CScK6D3KROM

Classic “Trevi Fountain” scene from La Dolce Vita put Rome on the movie map:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_99e25pmd5c

The X-Men movies featured Hatley Castle as a mutant training facility:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKMDEwSsdb4

The DaVinci Code and sequel Angels and Demons boosted business at the Vatican:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28xbCvfOcQI

Tourists flocked to Santa Barbara County’s Santa Ynez Valley after Sideways:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhqUtxFotqE