Bollywood's amazing money trail

After three continents, six countries and eight cities over a period of eight years, the three-day event will now take place in Bangkok on June 8.

So far, about 30 Indian films and 100 television serials have been shot in Thailand at a cost of about $30 million.

As for the steadily growing numbers of Indian tourists to the Kingdom, Tourism and Sports Minister Weerasak Kowsurat told an IIFA press conference that India was their "strongest market in South Asia", with more than 50,000 tourists last year and tourism receipts of Bt16 billion.

He expressed hope that the IIFA awards would help towards their target of 600,000 Indian tourists this year.

A run-through of previous IIFA events gives an idea of the tourism benefits of the Bollywood awards show on the host countries. When it was held in Malaysia's Genting Highlands in 2002, there was a 190 per cent increase in Indian tourists to that region.

When it was held in Singapore in 2004, there was a 31 per cent increase in tourists, and 17 million Singaporean dollars (Bt401 million) in tourism receipts. The global television value of the event was measured at S$8.8 million.

The Singapore Tourism Board and Media Development Authority announced a seven-year budget of S$100 million for co-production of films shot in the city-state and a S$10 million budget for Indian films. This led to the production of a big-budget bilingual film called "Krish", which was distributed globally with more than 800 prints

When the IIFA awards were held in Amsterdam in 2005, as many as 15,000 visitors and 12,000 room-bookings for the three-day event were counted, for ¤18.6 million (Bt937 million) in tourism receipts. The value of the television broadcast was estimated at ¤22.1 million.

A collaboration agreement was signed between the General Dutch Association of Travel Agencies and the Indian Tour Operators Association, which led to KLM offering three extra flights a week to India.

The 2006 IIFA awards in Dubai led to a 30 per cent increase in tourism, while the estimated direct economic result was US$19 million.

Dubai Studio City was introduced to many Mumbai producers, which led to the production of two blockbuster Indian films afterwards.

Last year's IIFA in Yorkshire, England, resulted in 40,000 visitors during the awards weekend and tourism receipts of US$19 million. The global media coverage of the region was estimated at £50 million (Bt3.17 billion).

This year's television coverage is expected to surpass the record 500 million viewers from 110 countries watching last year's Star TV coverage of the awards.