A film can sell a destination faster than any proposal you write. It can also produce a brief that no ground operator can deliver. Here is how to use Morocco’s moment on screen without letting it design the programme for you.
Key points
- A screen moment does one job well: it removes the explaining. Use it in the shortlisting conversation, not in the itinerary.
- Literal recreation dates a programme to the film’s release window. Build around what the destination does year-round instead.
- Scope ground capacity earlier than usual — everyone who saw the film is looking at the same dates.
- Test the destination against the objective of the programme first. The film is the reason it gets a hearing, not the reason it wins.
Northern Ireland has spent more than a decade converting Game of Thrones into visitor demand, and it is still working. That is the upside case for what a production does to a destination, and it is worth being clear about why it works: not because people want to stand where a scene was filmed, but because the landscape stopped needing an introduction.
Morocco is in that position now. For UK agencies placing incentive and senior-leadership programmes, the practical effect is narrow but real — it changes the shortlisting conversation, and it changes very little else.
The scale of the production is part of why. Major portions of The Odyssey were filmed in Essaouira, Dakhla, Marrakech and the Ouarzazate region, with Aït Benhaddou used for the primary, 360-degree practical set of Troy — a build that accommodated over 2,000 extras and structures on the scale of the Temple of Athena.
What a screen moment actually does for you
The hardest part of putting an unfamiliar destination in front of an end client is not the ground programme. It is the picture in their head. A destination that needed a paragraph of context last quarter needs a sentence once the client has seen it on a cinema screen, and the conversation moves on to whether it fits rather than whether it is a serious option.
That is the whole benefit, and it is worth more than it sounds. It does not, on its own, make a destination right for a brief. Treat it as a shortcut through the introduction, not as an argument.
Where film-led briefs go wrong
The failure mode is recognisable. A client sees a film, asks for the programme to recreate it, and the brief arrives specifying scenery rather than outcomes. Three things tend to follow.
- The programme dates itself. Anything built around a specific release reads as last year’s idea within twelve months, which is a problem if the client repeats the programme.
- The expectation outruns the budget. A production spends on a single shot what a programme spends on a day. Matching what is on screen is not usually the conversation you want to be having.
- Capacity gets tight. A screen moment is not a secret. The locations that appear on film attract enquiries from everyone who watched it, in the same windows.
What Morocco offers a corporate programme, film aside
Strip the film out and the case is still there. Morocco puts a wide range of landscapes within reach of one another — coast, mountains, desert and dense historic cities — which gives you genuine variety across a short programme without long transfers eating the days. It is short-haul from the UK, and its shoulder seasons are usable when much of southern Europe is not.
That combination is what makes it worth shortlisting. The film is the reason your client will let you put it on the list this year.
Three questions to test the brief with
- What is the programme for? Reward, incentive, alignment, a launch. If the answer changes nothing about the destination choice, the destination is being chosen for the wrong reason.
- What is the travel window and how long is the programme? These are hard constraints. No ground offer negotiates them away.
- Has ground capability been confirmed for those dates? Confirm before the destination goes to the client, not after they have picked it.
We sit between UK agencies and a portfolio of vetted overseas partners, which means we see the same brief arrive from several directions at once. When a destination has a moment, the agencies that place programmes successfully are the ones that scoped it early and briefed it on outcomes.
Frequently asked questions
Does a film location actually change where clients want to go?
It changes how quickly they can picture it, which is not the same thing but is often the blocker. A destination that needed three paragraphs of explanation last year needs one sentence once a client has seen it on screen. It rarely creates demand on its own; it removes friction from demand that already existed.
Should the programme recreate scenes from the film?
Almost never. Literal recreation dates the programme to the film’s release window and sets an expectation of spectacle that a corporate budget will not meet. Use the film for the shortlisting conversation, then build the programme around what the destination does well year-round.
How far ahead do we need to move on a destination with a screen moment?
Earlier than you would otherwise, because you are competing for the same ground capacity as everyone else who saw the film. We would rather scope availability with our partner before you take the destination to your client than after.
Is Morocco realistic for a short programme from the UK?
It is short-haul from the UK, which puts it within range of the programme lengths that most UK corporate incentives run to. Whether it works for a specific brief depends on the travel window and the objective, which is the order we would test it in.
Talk it through
If you have a brief where Morocco is on the list, or you want to know whether it should be, send it over and we will tell you honestly whether it fits.
By Alia Saunders, Sales Director, Cashel Representation.
Our partner on the ground: Programmes in Morocco are delivered with S’TOURS, our DMC partner in the destination.