Decade-old Cars film still draws tourists to Route 66

In a few months, the Disney-Pixar animated Cars film will mark its 10th anniversary. Because of its setting included the fictional Route 66 town of Radiator Springs, the film brought several years’ worth of new tourists to the real Route 66.

Based on Route 66 News’ steady and solid traffic over the years with the story about the real-life Route 66 inspirations to “Cars,” I had a hunch that even after a decade, “Cars” still was bringing tourists to the Mother Road.

It appears Sean Noble at the Kingman Visitors Center in Kingman, Arizona, has confirmed this. But not only is “Cars” bringing parents and Pixar buffs who saw the movie the year it debuted, but also a younger surge of tourists who were children at that time.

Arizona-based KTAR radio reports:

Young people anxious to see the real places from a childhood movie are driving to towns like Flagstaff and Kingman and other places along the famous route. […]

Noble said the uptick in tourism is mainly millennials, who watched the film growing up.

“We’ve seen a lot millennials taking Route 66 doing road trips while they are taking breaks from college or going back and forth,” he said. “Prior to that movie, we really didn’t see it.”

This probably shouldn’t be surprising. Disney and Pixar films long have proven to have multi-generational appeal. Disney was so sure of the long-term draw of the “Cars” franchise, it built the multimillion-dollar, Route 66-themed Cars Land at Disneyland Resort in California six years after the film. And “Cars 3” will be in theaters by summer 2017.

Over the years, many have expressed concern that with many of Route 66’s visitors being aging baby boomers, the tourist flow eventually would die out.

But perhaps the concern is overstated. if “Cars” still appeals to new generations of people over the years, why shouldn’t Route 66?

(Image of Cars Land in 2012 by Roderick Eime via Flickr)