Why Chinese tourists are flocking to Sydney University to look for Harry Potter
Tourists are flocking to the University of Sydney, Australia in the belief the Harry Potter movies were filmed on campus.
F.I.T. Travel, which provides support and travel advice for Chinese people to destinations including Australia, New Zealand and Fiji, has the campus listed among the city’s best attractions.
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It compares the sandstone-style buildings and green lawns to a “real life” Hogwarts – the fictional campus where wizards and witches study magic.
“Let us visit Australia’s magic academy while waiting for the owl,” the listing reads.
It adds the University of Sydney “is the real version of Hogwarts”.
However, it seems some tourists believe the Harry Potter movies were actually filmed in Sydney.
A University of Sydney spokesperson confirmed to Yahoo that tourists have been arriving on campus looking for the Harry Potter film scenes.
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“Tourists visiting the University of Sydney have on occasion asked our staff whether the Harry Potter movies have been filmed on our campus,” the spokesperson said.
“Although our Quadrangle is often compared to Hogwarts, none of the Harry Potter films have been filmed here, as our staff inform those who ask.”
Dr. James Fraser of the university’s Nicholson Museum told SBS there’s been a 4,000 people increase in visitors to the campus in the last two years.
He told the news site one reason for that is people keep asking to see where Harry Potter was filmed.
A Chinese tourist also told SBS he believed one of the Harry Potter scenes was filmed in the Quadrangle – the university’s sandstone building made up of a number of towers with grass in the centre.
In reality the Harry Potter films shot in a number of U.K. locations for Hogwarts. Alnwick Castle in Northumberland, Lacock Abbey in Wiltshire, Gloucester Cathedral, Christ Church College Oxford, Oxford University’s Bodleian Library, and Glencoe in the Scottish Highlands all contributed to the overall look of the magic school on screen.
Not Sydney University.
Reporting by Yahoo 7 News
