Article by Ben Spencer
Many moons ago, back in 1957, a marketer called James Vicary shocked the United States when he announced that he’d been inserting subliminal messages about Coca-Cola and popcorn between movie frames, giving rise to an urban legend that persisted for years.
Vicary claimed this messaging had helped sales of popcorn rise by almost 20% and Coca-Cola by 57.7%.
If Vicary was telling the truth, and subliminal advertising had a way of burrowing into the public’s minds, what could more nefarious powers get away with telling people? Luckily, it all seems to have been a hoax or, at least, a singular experiment.
TV does have an impact on our desires, bringing us to the topic of TV tourism, something Quartz magazine described as “big business” earlier this year.
TV tourism
In 2025, Coventry made it onto an exclusive list of UK tourist hotspots, after visitor numbers grew 3.6% to almost 12m people.
That figure places the city in the same league as The Lake District, The Scottish Highlands, London, and York.
By comparison with Coventry’s 12m, the Lake District claims 18m visits per year, while the English capital hosts up to £30m.
The question is, where did this tourism spike come from? And could Coventry leverage existing technologies like TV to rake in even better numbers?
TV directly influences where people choose to go on holiday.
For instance, the well-received HBO series The White Lotus caused a spike in bookings at the Four Seasons hotel chain in Hawaii, Thailand, and Sicily.
This so-called TV tourism is about as close as society gets to Vicary’s now 68-year-old vision for subliminal advertising, without the eye strain of millions of flashing images.
Still, both for Coventry and places in paradise, the money going into tourism this year might come as a surprise.
The UK is still healing from a 41-year high inflation spike three years ago.
Also, the Travel and Tour World website reports that countries including the UK, Germany, Spain, the US, and Canada have seen a “massive” slump in tourism over the past nine months.
Digital Avenues
Unfortunately, tourism is an industry that’s (mostly) locked into a traditional way of doing things.
Many individual facets of travel and entertainment, such as live music and casino gaming, meanwhile, can switch to more digital avenues when conditions turn unfavourable.
With streaming technology, some of the more unique aspects of the real world, like socialising, can be retained.
The sort of online live casino UK players have at their disposal nowadays will offer all the games you might expect in a physical location, including roulette and blackjack, while also throwing in some titles and game shows which are exclusive to its website.
These dispense with random number generators in favour of a human dealer. Some live lobbies even allow conversation with table staff and other players.
This has an obvious advantage over brick-and-mortar locations in that such services can stay available at all hours of the day and not suffer at all from tangible factors like travel restrictions, hazardous weather, or the general costs of upkeep for a real venue, while still offering some impressive content.
With that said, many of these sites actually belong to brands that also offer physical locations.
This is perhaps where TV tourism comes back in, the idea of experiencing something at a distance – living vicariously through people on the box – and planning for the days when the price of plane tickets falls again.
Enjoy playing a game with an Egyptian theme? You might just consider travelling to Egypt for your next holiday.
Spin the reels on a site offering a physical casino in a foreign country?
You might pay them a visit when you go abroad. Your favourite TV show uses Coventry as a filming location in a notable episode? You get the idea.
Business Insider claims that 3 in 5 travellers are ‘pushed’ towards their next booking by what they’ve seen on TV.
Quartz adds that Highclere Castle saw a bump in visits to Downton Abbey – and we all remember what Peter Jackson did for New Zealand.
Perhaps it’s time for Coventry City Council to forget about travel brochures and switch on the telly.
