BATAVIA, OH, SEP. 13, 2019 – The motion picture industry is a busy and robust business that many people might not think of as a tourism driver. However, in Clermont County the show has just begun.
The Clermont County Convention and Visitors Bureau has focused one sales initiative on bringing films into the county. With a strong partnership with Film Cincinnati, the county is seeing positive economic impact from this business.
Film Cincinnati is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to attracting, promoting and cultivating film, television and commercial production throughout Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. With the same objective, the Ohio Motion Picture Tax Credit incentivizes production to film in Ohio by offering tax credits. These film productions spend money on employees, equipment, lodging, food and other necessities. This spending that occurs locally will positively impact the economy.
According to the University of Cincinnati Economics Center, the motion picture industry has nearly an $80 million-dollar economic impact to the Greater Cincinnati region.
“It’s because of collaboration from organizations like the Clermont County Convention and Visitors Bureau that Film Cincinnati is able to bring in top production crews to our area,” said Kristen Schlotman, Executive Director of Film Cincinnati. “The Clermont County CVB has gone out of its way to accommodate the productions, which contributes millions of dollars to the local economy,” she added.
“We see this as a growing market for Clermont County. We sponsor Film Cincinnati to support their efforts in bringing more movie and TV productions into the region. The current film crew shooting Wrong Turn will be here for several weeks and utilize approximately 1,400 hotel room nights,” commented Jeff Blom, President of the Clermont County Convention and Visitors Bureau.
This month, residents will begin seeing film crews in and around the Clermont County area as filmmakers begin shooting the movie Wrong Turn starring actor Matthew Modine. Locations include New Richmond, Utopia, Felicity and Milford. Aside from filming locations, the film crew is renting and utilizing office space and warehouse storage in Union Township.
“Our staff has done a terrific job of building that relationship with Film Cincinnati. We have helped location scouts identify sites around Clermont to shoot productions. In order to assist location scouts, our CVB staff has created an online photo library of potential sites around Clermont County. We try to make it as easy as possible for scouts to select places in our county to film. The easier we make it, the easier we are to work with, the more Film Cincinnati will bring productions to Clermont,” stated Blom.
This will not be the first time Clermont County is home to Hollywood productions. Most recently, The Old Man and the Gun (2017) had multiple scenes in Clermont County including East Fork State Park. In addition, Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile (2018) starring Zach Efron was filmed in Batavia and various locations.
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About the Clermont County Convention and Visitors Bureau
The Clermont County Convention & Visitors Bureau is a professional destination marketing and sales organization, whose mission is to strengthen the community by generating economic growth and vitality through tourism, overnight stays and encouraging visitor spending in the local tourism economy.
