Netflix Wants You to Visit the Bow Valley. Its New Map Reveals Where Your Favourite Shows Were Filmed.

If you've ever watched a Netflix series and caught yourself saying, "I've been there," Netflix has a new tool designed for exactly that moment.

The streaming giant has launched Netflix in Your Neighbourhood, an interactive online map that lets viewers explore the real Canadian filming locations behind some of its most popular films and television series.

The Rockies feature prominently throughout the map.

One of the region's biggest showcases comes from the upcoming Korean romantic comedy Can This Love Be Translated? Several scenes were filmed throughout Banff, Canmore and Kananaskis, with the map allowing viewers to revisit the exact locations featured on screen, from a stroll across Banff's Central Park Pedestrian Bridge to the turquoise waters of Quarry Lake and the mountain scenery surrounding Upper Kananaskis Lake.

Fortress Mountain also serves as the backdrop for scenes in the nature documentaries The Dinosaurs and Our Living World, while Nakoda Lakeside Lodge and nearby Stoney Park Campground feature in the upcoming western drama The Abandons. Elsewhere in Kananaskis, the Elbow River Launch appears in My Life With the Walter Boys.

Rather than simply identifying where productions were filmed, Netflix has built each location into a travel itinerary. Every stop includes recommendations for places to eat, nearby hikes, local shops and attractions, encouraging viewers to experience the same landscapes they saw on screen.

On its own, the launch is another example of "set-jetting," the growing trend of travellers visiting destinations made famous by film and television.

But the timing also comes as Netflix and other streaming services find themselves at the centre of one of Canada's biggest cultural policy debates in decades.

In May, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) finalized major new rules under the Online Streaming Act, expanding the financial obligations imposed on large streaming platforms operating in Canada. The decision builds on an existing 5% contribution requirement and adds new spending obligations that could bring total required contributions to roughly 15% of Canadian revenues for the largest services. The ruling has prompted legal challenges from streaming companies and criticism from U.S. lawmakers, who argue the measures unfairly target foreign platforms.

Netflix has not linked the new interactive map to those regulatory changes.

But the project reinforces an argument the company has increasingly made in recent years: that its productions already generate significant economic and tourism benefits by showcasing Canadian communities to audiences around the world.

According to Netflix-commissioned research surveying 13,500 people across six countries, viewers who watch Canadian content are 2.1 times more likely to rank Canada as their top travel destination than those who have not. The company also found viewers were significantly more interested in visiting Canada's natural landscapes, taking road trips, exploring local food and drink, learning about Canadian history and experiencing Indigenous culture after watching Canadian productions.

The report argues that Canadian productions do more than entertain. They shape how international audiences perceive the country.

"Canadian content is a powerful vehicle for bringing people closer to Canada," Netflix wrote in the report. "It creates deeper cultural affinity and has significant potential to drive tourism."

That distinction has become increasingly important in the debate surrounding the Online Streaming Act.

As CBC News recently reported, supporters of the legislation argue companies like Netflix should contribute more directly to funding Canadian-owned productions as traditional broadcasters lose subscribers. Critics, including University of Ottawa internet law professor Michael Geist and the Motion Picture Association, counter that streaming companies already invest hundreds of millions of dollars producing film and television in Canada, but much of that spending doesn't count toward the new regulatory requirements because the productions aren't considered Canadian-owned under existing rules.

The disagreement reflects two competing views of what it means to support Canadian culture.

One focuses on who owns the intellectual property and creative rights behind a production. The other points to the economic impact of filming in Canada and the international exposure those productions generate for Canadian destinations.

Netflix's new map doesn't weigh in on that debate directly.

Instead, it showcases the places themselves.

For Bow Valley residents, many of the filming locations will already be familiar. But for millions of viewers around the world, they've only ever seen these places through a screen.

Now, Netflix is inviting them to see those places in person.