2019 EDA Spring Newsletter

Riverside County Film Commission

2019 Western Coachella Valley FAMTour: Film RivCo

A “FAM” or “Familiarization” Tour is a little known tool in the economic development and tourism industry to introduce location managers, potential in- fluencers and production decision makers to what a re- gion has to offer. On these tours, our Film Office famil- iarize Location Scouts with properties and attractions we offer so that they have first-hand knowledge and can speak from personal experience about destination filming sites. What is key for film industry FAM tours isn’t to focus on the picture postcard locations you sell the tourists, but to offer the most unique and widest diver- sity of locations you can offer from gritty back streets to government or military installations that aren’t nor- mally accessible to the general public. With the growth of film tourism and the understanding of the positive economic benefit that a film production can bring to a region, more and more film commissions have been using FAM Tours to introduce film producers to their regions. The Riverside County Film Commission host- ed their 2019 Western Coachella Valley FAM tour with 6 top Location Scouts from the Film industry, in part- nership with the Greater Palm Springs Convention and Visitors Bureau.

On location at the Western Coachella FAM Tour- May 17-19th, 2019!

Above: Revised logo; New campaign for positioning Riverside County as the “Indie Filmmaking Capital of the World” .

Spring 2019 | 17