'Game Of Thrones' Is Transforming Croatia Into a "Kingdom Of Tourism" and Set-Jetting

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Croatia, where many episodes of about-to-be-launched Season 5 of Game of Thrones were filmed, is enthusiastically gearing up for a flood of Thrones-happy tourists.

The trend began in 2011 when the massively popular series debuted, and all signs point to exponential growth of the tourist-generating phenomenon when the new season kicks off on April 12.

In fact, many predict a replication of the tide of "screen tourism" that happened to New Zealand as a result of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, followed by the Hobbit film series, directed by that country's native hero Peter Jackson -- and that helped generate more than $7 billion in tourism in 2014 alone.

The “Game of Thrones effect” on Croatian tourism and the country's general economy already is enormous. Dubrovnik, a major Mediterranean vacation city and seaport, serves as the setting for the story's capital of the Seven Kingdoms, King's Landing and "shudders under the crush of tourists,” the Telegraph noted recently, adding that “Croatia’s economy depends almost entirely on tourism. It's extraordinary, but HBO is allowed to film in the city in high season because the boost in employment is worth the disruption.”

The wave of what observers call “set-jetting,” tourism motivated by TV or movies has exploded in recent years. Other countries - among them, Spain, Northern Ireland, Iceland and Morocco - are also benefiting from the ultra popular Game of Thrones series.

“In 2014 the research firm Tourism Competitive Intelligence found that 45 million international tourists chose a destination primarily because they saw a movie or a television show filmed in that country,” reported the International BusinessTimes.

National and international travel agencies join countless online outfits in offering Game of Thrones trips and tours of all lengths and prices. In Croatia, these itineraries include the walled city of Dubrovnik on the Adriatic Sea, a Unesco World Heritage site, the Diocletian Palace, which dates from 300AD and another World Heritage site, the Klis Fortress, and the Krka National Park and its waterfalls, all backdrops of the gruesome battles, murderous intrigues, and fire-breathing dragons populating the latest season set on the fantasy continents of Westeros and Essos.

Other Croatian villages appear as fictional towns in the series: the islands of Lokrum off the coast of Dubrovnik and Mrkan off the coast of Cavtat, the village of Mlini, the fortresses of Minceta, Bokar, Klis and Lovrijenac, the Trsteno Arboretum, and the Dubac quarry.

But the effects of set-jetting is felt throughout Europe. Many of the tours on offer extend for weeks and cover the entire route of the series. Also, Thrones tourism has increased visits to medieval cities and towns, and expanded the availability of Europe's many castles for rent.

For hardcore fans as well as for travellers simply inspired by the settings in Thrones, here are a few more of the seasons' s locations: Belfast and its Binevenagh Mountain cliff, where fifth-season filming began in July 2014,  various locations in Spain, including the Palacio del Alcazar in Sevilla, the medieval town of Osuna and Cordoba, which pretends to be the city of Volantis in the series.