"A well-made piece of content can sustain an entire city." This saying rings entirely true for Salzburg, Austria.

Visiting the entrance of Salzburg’s Mirabell Gardens on the 16th (local time), dozens of tourists were lined up on the steps. This is the exact spot where Maria and the children danced while singing the final lines of "Do-Re-Mi" in the 1965 film The Sound of Music. When someone played the song, tourists filmed videos mimicking the movie's choreography or hummed along. Leo, a tourist in his 50s from the UK, said, "I’ve loved The Sound of Music since I was a child. At a glance, this might look like an ordinary staircase, but it is a special place for those who grew up watching the movie."

Covering an area of $65.65text{ km}^2$—roughly half the size of Yeongjong Island in Incheon—Salzburg is hailed as a world-class tourist city, drawing about 3 million visitors annually. The city’s popularity stems largely from two factors: it is the birthplace of classical music master Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and it served as the backdrop for the 1965 film The Sound of Music.

The Sound of Music stands out as the content that widely publicized Salzburg’s scenic beauty. Key filming locations in the movie, such as Hellbrunn Palace and Schloss Leopoldskron where Maria and the children sang, along with nearby Werfen and Lake Wolfgang, remain essential stops for tourists. The Nonnberg Convent, where Maria von Trapp—the real-life figure who inspired the movie—lived as a nun, is another. Following the movie's filming locations naturally leads tourists to encounter Salzburg’s history.

The tourism industry also reaped the benefits of the film. A representative example is the "Panorama Tour" company. Starting as a small transport business in the 1950s, the company was tasked with carrying actors and crew members during the Hollywood production in 1964. When tourists flocking to Salzburg surged immediately following the movie's release, drivers familiar with the filming sites began acting as guides, launching an unofficial tour. Established as an official tour in 1984, it continues to operate as one of the city's representative tourism products to this day.

"Influenced by The Sound of Music, children learn music, visit theaters, and dream of visiting Salzburg," said Astrid Grohhmann-Licht, senior representative of the Salzburg State Tourist Board. "Salzburg exemplifies the power of cultural content in that a single piece of media has driven the city's brand and tourism industry for decades."

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