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Christopher Nolan's "The Odyssey" is already translating cinema interest into travel demand, with bookings to Greece climbing sharply after the film's release and destinations linked to Homer being turned into new tourism routes.
Yet the surge is also bringing out a contrast that had emerged before the premiere: Troy, where Odysseus' journey begins after the legendary war, remains outside the film's location-driven tourism circuit despite its archaeological and literary connection to the story.
Unforgettable Greece reported a 76% year-over-year rise in bookings to Greece linked to interest around the film, while easyJet Holidays recorded an 18% increase in weekly Greece bookings in the first week of August compared with the previous week.
Corfu led the immediate rise, with bookings up 28%, while searches for the Peloponnese, Kefalonia and Zakynthos also increased. Sicily, another location associated with the production, recorded an 8% increase in bookings.
The figures give measurable form to "set-jetting," the travel trend in which audiences seek out destinations they have encountered through films or television productions.
The interest has gone beyond conventional holiday bookings, with tourism operators and institutions building products around the Homeric connection.
"Unforgettable Greece" introduced 22 thematic itineraries linking Athens, Corfu and Ithaca, while the Greek National Tourism Organization sought to build on the film's international reach through promotional activity.
Its France office organized a press trip to Ithaca that resulted in a 162-page Le Figaro magazine publication titled "In the Footsteps of Odysseus."
That push is taking place even though Nolan did not shoot a single scene on Ithaca, the Ionian island traditionally associated with Odysseus' home.
Island officials and businesses nevertheless expect the film to bring in more visitors. Ithaca Mayor Dionysis Stanitsas described the publicity as tremendous, although he also expressed disappointment that efforts to bring the production to the island had not worked out.
Archaeologist Spyros Couvaras likewise said visitors increasingly wanted history and mythology alongside beaches, adding: "But behind Nolan's film stands Homer."
Ithaca's position underlines how screen tourism can spread beyond the places that actually appear in a film.
The island already draws on its Homeric associations through statues of Odysseus and Homer, boats carrying names such as Telemachus and Calypso, and shops selling objects connected with figures from the epic tradition.
Although Ithaca itself was left out of the production, the island is being placed inside the tourism narrative because of its role in "The Odyssey."
Troy presents the reverse case. It is central to the narrative that sets Odysseus' homecoming in motion, but Nolan's film was not shot in Türkiye, leaving the archaeological landscape outside the growing network of destinations being promoted through the production.
Before the film's release, Yasar Museum Director Ridvan Golcuk told Türkiye Today that Greece and Sicily were likely to benefit from the emerging screen-tourism wave while Troy risked being pushed to the margins.
Golcuk pointed out that Odysseus went to Troy for war, that the Wooden Horse belongs to the Trojan narrative, and that his voyage home begins only after the city's fall.
He also argued that international travel narratives could shape not only destination choices but the identity and economic value attached to cultural heritage.
"We also have to lead the narrative of our cultural heritage," Golcuk said.
The booking figures now emerging from Greece and Sicily show that the screen-tourism effect discussed ahead of the release has begun to materialize.
Although Türkiye was not part of the film's production route, Troy's archaeological heritage is already presented through two major museum experiences.
The Troy Museum in Canakkale, beside the UNESCO-listed archaeological site, brings together nearly 5,000 years of history from Troy and the wider Troas region. Its collection includes the Polyxena Sarcophagus, Bronze Age gold objects, a statue of Roman Emperor Hadrian, a Luwian seal and finds from surrounding ancient settlements.
For travelers in Istanbul, the Troy galleries at the Istanbul Archaeological Museums connect the Trojan War, the Wooden Horse, Odysseus, Aeneas and the history of excavations at Hisarlik.
Together, the museums place the literary story alongside the physical remains of the settlement from which Odysseus' journey begins.
As Greece builds new itineraries and promotional campaigns around Nolan's film, the contrast increasingly comes down to how quickly screen attention is turned into a destination narrative.
Ithaca is already attempting to benefit without appearing in a single frame, while Troy remains connected to "The Odyssey" through the story itself rather than through the film's shooting locations.
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