Audiovisual Fiction, Tourism, and Audience Studies

A literature review

Abstract

Institutions are investing increasing amounts of resources in the promotion of their regions through audiovisual fiction. At the same time, there has been increasing scholarly interest in the relationship between audiovisual fiction and tourism, and particularly the effect of that relationship on potential tourists. Despite the inherently interdisciplinary nature of this field of research, very little attention appears to be given to what media studies, and particularly audience studies, could contribute. The purpose of this article is to offer a critical review of the literature on film-induced tourism from the perspective of audience analysis. To this end, previous studies are categorised according to their objectives (e.g., to study the effect of films and series on destination image, travel motivations, experiences and intentions to visit, or tourist visits themselves), and an analysis is offered of their main findings and conclusions and of the use they make (if any) of audience analysis. The article then concludes with some proposals of ways to integrate audience analysis more fully into studies of film-induced tourism to support research in this field.