It is increasingly common to run into filming of all kinds through the streets of Santa Cruz. The revolution that involved having actors like Matt Damon, in bournes 5 (2015)either Sylvester Stallone, with Rambo V (2018), has become something more everyday thanks to national and international productions, be it movies, series, advertising or photo shoots. The irruption of the audiovisual industry in the capital “is already a reality” as defended by the councilor delegate of the Development Society, Alfonso Cabello, who recalls that since the creation of the Santa Cruz Film Office, back in 2012, Eight series, seven feature films, five television programs, two documentaries, two video clips, 16 photography sessions or 15 advertisements have been shot in the capital. “So far in 2023 we have already counted 35 audiovisual works, and right now there are four underway,” the mayor explained to DIARIO DE AVISOS.
Among these jobs are some for National Geographic, Discovery Channel, Primark and Mango ads or a blockbuster of a feature film in Germany. “Santa Cruz is no longer a bet on an incipient sector, but rather it is a reality. We began to stand out seven years ago with Jason Bourne, and since then it has been confirmed that it is already a reality, ”he insists. But the councilor wants to put the accent, more than on the productions themselves, on the audiovisual service platform that the capital is becoming. “The Canary Islands is the filming set, and there, of course, Santa Cruz has many locations, but the reality is that the capital is becoming the platform where many of the service companies are concentrated, where a large part of the those shoots that are made on the Island, and where an incipient audiovisual services industry is being generated”.
The councilor gives a very clear example of the growth of this service industry. “The film industry is monopolizing professionals such as carpenters and locksmiths, or make-up artists or special effects companies, and we have noticed this both in the construction of the Carnival stage and in the preparations for the galas, because they pay much more than us, and the professionals, as is logical, opt for the shootings that are underway”.
product club
Faced with this “reality”, the Development Company has set to work to take advantage of this incipient industry and make the most of it by creating a tourism product club with which to attract companies that can join this offer of services.
As stated in the document that the City Council is already working on, “audiovisual projects in Tenerife increase year after year. The audiovisual sector has doubled the spending figures that this sector presented just 10 years ago and already represents significant figures in terms of employment and generation of economic activity. Only last year, more than 3,500 qualified people and more than 5,000 extras and extras were hired on the Islands. This type of activity manages to diversify the economy on the island and in the municipality of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, promoting alternative types of tourism to the existing ones, such as the visit of workers from abroad who stay in hotels in the city and consume in the Island or people who choose the tourist destination because they want to visit and recreate the scenes of their series or movies”.
The special taxation of the Islands, it is true that it is one of the main attractions, but for this very reason, Santa Cruz must fight with the rest of the enclaves so that the capital is chosen. “The audiovisual sector has a strong significant impact on the territory. The first great effect is made up of its direct impact on the municipal economy. Both through the direct hiring of personnel, mainly extras and technical support personnel, as well as its ability to stimulate and diversify local economies, given its high multiplier effect. Likewise, this activity attracts throughout the year, work teams that increase the tourist demand of the territory”.
The latest example of this reflection is in the Apple TV series, Foundation, filmed in the surroundings of the Tenerife Auditorium, and whose estimated cost in the Canary Islands was 30 million. In Santa Cruz, this filming involved the hiring of freight transport service companies, car rental, accommodation, laundries, wood sales, mobile phone companies, event equipment rental or haberdashery wholesalers.
For this filming, which lasted a month, more than 150 residents were hired to participate in technical work, to which must be added the team of extras who, in total, accounted for nearly 1,000 people, concentrating on a few days around of 350. The team transferred for the filming was approximately 200 people. This group of people are, for all intents and purposes, housed tourists, since they were staying overnight in various hotels in the municipality and consuming tourist goods and services during free weekends to enjoy the city and the island, in sectors such as restaurants, transportation, commerce, leisure, etc.
With all this data, the product club intends to make all these companies visible to the large producers. “The companies and entities that make up the local audiovisual ecosystem lack a meeting point that is a reference for the sector, whose purpose is to be able to make themselves visible to the large producers, while at the same time requiring a space where problems, lines of work are agreed and possible solutions for the benefit of both the sector and the territory. Within this, public-private cooperation is very necessary, as elements that must agree on the work to be carried out and that guarantee municipal governance in this area”, defends Cabello.
So for the tourist destination of Santa Cruz de Tenerife to continue advancing in the audiovisual sector “we propose the creation of a Santa Cruz Film Office tourist product club that serves to respond to the promotion and marketing needs of the audiovisual sector in the municipality , enabling tools for governance and public-private cooperation”.
But in what actions does that materialize? The main objective of the project is to achieve a better organization of the audiovisual tourist offer of Santa Cruz, managing to position the municipality as a reference tourist destination in cinematographic matters through the development of its associated resources, of the audiovisual ecosystem of Santa Cruz.
Quality requirements will be established to be part of the club, to guarantee the attendance of professionals who provide services with guarantees and quality and sustainability standards. Once constituted, the services will be offered in several lines, from the visibility of the offer, to facilitating procedures, or searching for locations.
Tourism
The tourist products section seeks to identify points of interest that attract the attention of a segment of tourists interested in places where significant filming has taken place. Once the points of interest have been identified, a Movie Map will be created where the visitor can observe the locations that may interest them the most, trying to include all the districts that make up Santa Cruz. The implementation of a Movie Map on the project’s website allows the different spaces used for filming to be valued, offering a tourist aspect, relating it to the scenes of the film and generating value for the visitor.
The impact on the hiring of audiovisual productions is very significant. Thus, by way of example, the arrival of a large production and other minor ones in Santa Cruz de Tenerife represented in March and April 2022, more than 15% of the total contracts of the entire municipality, only in the occupation “Actors”, without taking into account other occupations related to this sector, reaching its maximum in the month of April, with 1,881 new contracts.
In addition, in many of the audiovisual productions, the natural and sociocultural heritage where it takes place is valued, increasing the brand image of the territory where they are made. At the same time, there are business opportunities after the passage of these productions, especially the most relevant ones (examples such as the cases of bournes 5, Rambo Veither Foundation), which allow the development of complementary economic activities, through cinematographic tourism, that is, the leisure activity linked to the geographical locations of audiovisual productions, as well as the economic impact on the local population.
The Santa Cruz Strategic Plan includes a specific section for cinema and audiovisuals as an example of all of the above, since the power of the audiovisual industry is leaving data on employment and tourist spending, as collected by the product club, which makes it one of the lines in which to work from all municipal areas. Thus, this line of the Strategic Plan is committed to boosting the audiovisual sector, encouraging investment, or promoting the municipality.
