Abstract
In the midst of economic decline caused by a drop in forest-related jobs, Forks, WA was ready to redefine itself by the early 2000s. With the help of Stephenie Meyer’s successful Twilight series, which was set in Forks, community leaders embraced the opportunity for economic development by enhancing film tourism to the town. The purpose of the present study has been to evaluate how a community’s social infrastructure affects film tourism success and how film tourism affects community development. It accomplishes this by examining secondary data, survey data, and semi-structured interview data of residents and leaders of Forks, WA, setting of the Twilight series, before and after the films. Findings suggest that the marketing activities that Forks implemented were successful in bringing in Twilight fans and that film tourism had a positive impact on the local economy. However, while film tourism has benefitted local government and some local businesses, it has not financially benefitted everyone in Forks, particularly the large Latino community and Native Americans.
Recommended Citation
Crowe, Jessica. 2013. "The Twilight of Forks?: The Effect of Social Infrastructure on Film Tourism and Community Development in Forks, WA." Journal of Rural Social Sciences, 28(1): Article 1. Available at: https://egrove.olemiss.edu/jrss/vol28/iss1/1
Publication Date
4-30-2013
