Tills are alive with The Sound of Music
- 00:01:34
- ITN
Tills are alive with The Sound of Music
Fans who have worn out their Sound of Music videos can now stay at the von Trapp family's home.Entrepreneurs in the picturesque Alpine city of Salzburg are adding yet more to the must-do and must-have list of aficionados of one of Hollywood's greatest money-spinners by turning the mansion into a hotel.The Sound of Music - where aspiring nun Maria sings her way into the hearts of Baron von Trapp and his seven children - is one of Tinseltown's best-known film productions and has kept tills in the city ringing ever since it hit the screens in 1965.As of July, the hotel will give people the chance to sing 'the sun has gone to bed and so must I' in the home where the von Trapps lived, or just have some 'schnitzel with noodles' in the family dining-room.And for brides-to-be, there's even the chance to persuade their fiancees to get hitched in the house's chapel.But if that isn't enough for fans, the famous gazebo where Liesl - the eldest von Trapp daughter - met secretly with her Nazi boyfriend Rolf to perform the showstopper, I Am 16 Going On 17, will be available to fans as a self-assembly construction set.Visitors from North America, Asia and Great Britain - where the film has been hugely popular - generate some 700,000 overnight stays in Salzburg every year, according to tourism officials.For 40 per cent of these holidaymakers, the film is the sole reason to visit the city and 30 per cent of them have seen it more than eight times.Meanwhile, around 90 per cent join one of the city's tour operators to view the sites where the film was shot, like Mirabell park of Leopoldskron Palace.With tears in her eyes, Lana Wright, 53, from New Zealand said: "It was almost a feeling like 'you've come home'. Finally I have arrived, arrived somewhere where I was supposed to be, somewhere that I was supposed to see."And Canadian Tamara Reim, 23, added: "It's a classic - you can watch it over and over again, and love it every single time."
ITN | May 14, 2008
