"Mind the scenery!" Landscape depiction and the travel intentions of Game of Thrones fans: some insights for DMOs

Mitev, Ariel Zoltán; Irimiás, Anna; Michalkó, Gábor; Franch, Mariangela

doi:10.15196/rs07201

Cited by 6 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…This preliminary review identified a widespread assumption among researchers that the findings of a study relate to film fan tourists merely because its sample has been taken at a festival or theme park or because it examines a text that has turned into a fan phenomenon. As this literature review is concerned with research that specifically explores the film fan tourism phenomenon, it only considers studies that include a means of confirming the fan status of their participants, for example, by locating them through fan communities or specialist forums (Bolan;Kearney, 2017), by establishing committed, loyal viewing as a selection criterion (Bagnoli, 2015;Mitev et al, 2017), or by analysing their tourist behaviour Reijnders, 2018) 1 . Any studies that refer to tourists as fans without a mechanism for confirming their fan status or with selection criteria that cannot guarantee that status were excluded, reducing the sample to 49 articles.…”

Section: Selection and Exclusion Criteriamentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding Film Fan Tourism: An Inventory of 15 Years of Research

Beatriz Gómez-Morales,

Jorge Nieto-Ferrando,

Arturo Lozano-Aguilar

2024

EPI

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The first studies of film and television as inducers of tourism appeared in the 1990s. From the outset, research in this area has identified a diverse range of tourist profiles, highlighting the fact that audiovisual media fans constitute an important segment of the tourism market because fan consumers dedicate considerable amounts of time, money, and energy to pursuing their specific interest. As a result, academic researchers have developed a substantial body of knowledge in this field over a relatively short period. The objective of this article is to offer a critical review of studies that have enhanced our understanding of film fan tourists to identify critical gaps in knowledge and, consequently, propose new ways to fully integrate the fan perspective into studies of audiovisual fiction-induced tourism. To this end, all the articles dealing with this specific tourist profile indexed in Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar (49) have been identified and analysed based on their year of publication, geographical location, type of audiovisual production studied, methodology adopted and composition of the sample, major research themes and main theoretical and/or practical contributions. This review of the literature on film fan tourists finds that our understanding of the specific characteristics of the profile and behaviour of this type of tourist is still limited. This is due to some extent on the lack of consensus on the definition of the concept of “fans”, which has led to the erroneous classification of tourists whose travel motivation has nothing to do with a film and/or television production—and who may not even be fans of that production—as film fan tourists. The recommendations of this review thus focus mainly on reaching a consensus on the definition of the concept and establishing a single set of selection criteria for future research

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Section: Selection and Exclusion Criteriamentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding Film Fan Tourism: An Inventory of 15 Years of Research

Beatriz Gómez-Morales,

Jorge Nieto-Ferrando,

Arturo Lozano-Aguilar

2024

EPI

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“…For example, of the 205 results (search carried out on 8 December 2023) that appear in Scopus if the order "Game of Thrones" is written in the "Article title" field, only 21 of them deal with something related to the sectors mentioned-travel motivations, tourism impact, transformation of the region's image, etc. Of this number, two do not limit their analysis to any specific location [22,23], 10 focus on the case of Northern Ireland [24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33], five develop the influence that the series has generated in Dubrovnik, Croatia [34][35][36][37][38] and five focus their research on Spanish locations [38][39][40][41][42]. However, none of these studies have investigated the effect that Game of Thrones has had on Peñíscola, a Spanish municipality located in the province of Castellón.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Film-Induced Tourism, Destination Branding and Game of Thrones: A Review of the Peñíscola de Cine Project

Huerta-Viso,

Llorca Abad,

Canós-Darós

2023

Sustainability

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This paper addresses an alternative perspective on tourism success, emphasising sustainability over traditional quantitative metrics such as arrival numbers. It explores the impact of fiction films and TV series on individuals’ mental representations of destinations featured on screen, as well as the capacity of film discourse to construct a brand aligned with local stakeholders’ interests. Qualitative methods have been employed, conducting a literature review on sustainable film tourism and destination branding. Local news and an interview with the head of the Peñíscola Film Office complemented academic insights. The primary goal is to examine the “Peñíscola de Cine” project as a paradigm of success, initiated by the city council of Peñíscola, Spain. This project positions the municipality as a natural film set through productions like Game of Thrones (2011–2019), illustrating how film can contribute to destination branding and community engagement. The study highlights the positive contribution of film tourism to sustainability by diversifying and de-seasonalising a territory’s offerings. It also attracts a more educated and environmentally conscious audience. However, it cautiously discusses the potential risks, as evidenced by misapplications in Goathland, England, and Skellig Michael, Ireland, following their appearances in Heartbeat (1992–2010) and Star Wars (1977–2019), respectively. The paper concludes by suggesting film-friendly measures for destination management organizations (DMOs), emphasising the pivotal role of film commissions and film offices in crafting effective marketing strategies and capturing the interest of audiovisual production companies.

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