Immersion in film tourist experiences

ABSTRACT

This study adopts appropriation theory to examine the role of film in tourist experiences. Specifically, it analyzes how tourists draw on and manipulate movies and TV programs to construct immersive experiences. Depth interviews reveal how consumers engage in nesting, investigating, and stamping operations in order to reduce the physical, mental, and emotional distance with places, plots, and characters. Findings expand the understanding of the relationship between film and tourist experiences by documenting instances of accidental film tourism wherein film plays an impromptu, meaningful role in tourist experiences, and by showing how film reconsumption extends tourist experiences beyond the trip itself.

KEYWORDS:

• Visual media
• film tourism
• immersive experiences
• appropriation theory
• hermeneutic phenomenology

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.