‘Beneath the storyline’: analysing the role and importance of film in the preservation and development of Scottish heritage sites

Abstract

This article focuses on the increasing role and importance of popular culture for the management of cultural heritage sites in Scotland. In particular, it examines how heritage professionals deal with the growing number of location filming requests and new film tourist flows in the wake of these popular film and television productions. Based on a series of indepth interviews with fifteen heritage professionals from different management levels and diverse sites across Scotland, we identify three main approaches, each with their own consequences, for presenting and preserving Scottish heritage: the utilitarian approach, the criticalrepresentational approach, and the integrative approach. We conclude that the Scottish heritage sector is increasingly aware of the impact of popular culture, and willing to utilise those associations to increase the attractiveness of their heritage sites. Moreover, associations with popular culture offer ways to improve the inclusive character of contemporary heritage management.

Audiovisual Fiction and World Heritage Sites in Medium-Sized Spanish Cities: The Alhambra of Granada and the Royal Alcazar of Seville (1905–2023)

“…Additionally, as Schiavone, Reijnders and Brandellero [76] point out, the relationship between audiovisual fiction, tourism and historical heritage may have strictly utilitarian implications for the latter. In this way, audiovisual fiction, even in spite of its limited level of veracity, would act as a catalyst for attracting tourists (national and especially non-national), with the aim of positioning and consolidating the site as a must-see tourist attraction.…”

“…As Butler [89] (p. 51) points out, people choose their tourist destination depending on what they have seen via popular audiovisual means, such as television and cinema, and the author suggests that because people now read less frequently, anything appearing in films and television penetrates society more easily. This capacity for confluence has proven particularly fruitful in the case of Anglo-Saxon heritage [70][71][72]76]. In this case, it has created recognisable tourist postcards such as the panoramic views of the Alhambra from the viewpoints of the Albaicín, or the framing of the Giralda under the arches of the Patio de Banderas.…”

“…In the case of the Alhambra, enhancing the "exotic note" of national "difference" [69], as well as the tradition associated with Andalusian historical heritage and a certain national identity [70][71][72][73][74][75]. Concerning the Royal Alcazar, by positioning and consolidating the site as an emerging and essential tourist attraction [76]. In both cases, a questionable display of heritage authenticity [77] is shown, involving transnational impersonation of places [78].…”

(M)apping film in Scotland: Film tour maps, apps and ‘real’ engagements with virtual place

“…Saunders, 2017; Seaton, 2016). For instance, Schofield (1996) noted how film tourism gives rise to cinematic heritage: a kind of heritage that is developed during film tours in which representative and material space temporarily collide, and places and place identities are reproduced and reconstructed in the eyes of tourists (Schiavone et al, 2022).…”

“…Other empirical accounts have focused on the (practical) engagements with place that happen within film tours, for example through embodied practices of visitors, guides and locals (cf. Schiavone et al, 2022).…”