(Re)Visiting Game of Thrones: film-induced tourism and television fiction

ABSTRACT

This study examines the relationship between how a television series presents the locations where it is filmed and the tourist experiences of its audience, combining content analysis and reception theory. The Spanish filming locations for Game of Thrones (HBO) were chosen as a case study. The findings suggest that tourists post more photographs on social media of locations that are shown longer on screen, that have more sequences of importance to the narrative structure and that characters interact with more intensely. These findings demonstrate the importance of the audiovisual text to the potential role of film in tourist destination promotion.

KEYWORDS:

• Film tourism
• audiovisual language
• film analysis
• TV drama series
• Spain
• instagram
• tourist experience
• tourism destinations
• narrative space
• re-enactment

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to sincerely thank the reviewers for their constructive, detailed feedback and comments during the review process.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This article is a result of the R+D+i project PID2020-112668GB-I00, funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and the State Research Agency: MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033.