From The Straits Times    |

Philadelphia, Washington DC and Paris are expected to reap the benefits of playing supporting roles to some of this year’s Oscar-nominated films, as they welcome tourists whose visits are inspired by their favorite movie.

In advance of the biggest televised red carpet event of the year on Sunday, Hotels.com picked the trio of cities as the season’s best “destination-centric” movie sites.

The online reservations site predicts interest in Philadelphia, the setting for Silver Linings Playbook, Lincoln‘s Washington DC, and Paris for Les Misérables, will experience a spike in interest.

2013's best Oscar-inspired destinations
The 2012 film adaptation of Les Misérables makes Paris an even hotter movie-centric destination

Visit Philly, for example, has created a Silver Linings Playbook itinerary that includes a buffet lunch at Ballroom at the Ben, where Bradley Cooper (Patrick) and Jennifer Lawrence’s (Tiffany) characters perform in the dance competition, and a performance by the Philadenco dance troupe, which appears on a poster in Tiffany’s dance studio.

While Paris has never had problems attracting tourists, Les Misérables is poised to spark even higher interest in the City of Light, says Hotels.com.

It’s the same prediction from LateRooms.com, which reported last month a 366 per cent spike in hotel bookings for the town of Montreuil-Sur-Mer in northern France, where part of Victor Hugo’s story unfolds.

And given the Oscar buzz of Lincoln, interest in the US capital is also expected to rise particularly with visits to historical sites and exhibits such as The Smithsonian Institute’s Civil War 150 expo, or Civil War battlefields 65 km outside the city in Manassas, Virginia and Frederick, Maryland.

Similarly, the release of the latest James Bond installment, Skyfall, last year coincided with an increase in searches for Istanbul and Shanghai – both key filming locations for the movie – by 114 per cent and 59 per cent respectively, says Hotels.com.

The Oscars air February 24.

Catch the Oscars Red Carpet live on TV on Monday, Feb 25, 8:30am (Singapore time); the awards ceremony will telecast live at 9:30am.