«Downton Abbey» and the TV-induced Tourism

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

“…Among the fans of The Prisoner surveyed by Waysdorf and Reijnders (2019), the level of loyalty is extremely high; they have been visiting Portmeirion regularly for over 50 years, and meeting other fans is the main reason for returning. On the other hand, Bagnoli (2015) found that although respondents declared themselves to be satisfied with their visit, the majority stated that they would not visit the location a second time. And although their study does not deal specifically with the question of loyalty, Liu et al (2022) e330205 Profesional de la información, 2024, v. 33, n. 2. e-ISSN: 1699-2407 16 argue that unsatisfactory experiences can actually motivate anime tourists to revisit destinations, suggesting that the experience does not necessarily have to be positive to motivate a second visit.…”

“…According to the same authors, film fan tourists have higher expectations of their tour experience than other tourists, although they are also more prepared to suspend their disbelief and read beyond the "real" landscapes to "see" or "feel" the fictional space, an idea also corroborated by Light (2009). This combination of high expectations and greater inclination towards suspending disbelief partly explains why most studies identify a high percentage of participants who report that their expectations were met or exceeded and that they left satisfied with their tourist experience (Carl et al, 2007;Benjamin et al, 2012;Bagnoli, 2015).…”

“…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.…”

“…A traditional tourist activity that is also very popular among film fan tourists on their visits to filming locations is the purchase of souvenirs (Light, 2009), because these play an important role in demonstrating the fan's interest and involvement and in materialising the memories of a holiday. This is why nearly all the film fan tourists interviewed by Bagnoli (2015) report buying one or two souvenirs on their visit and why the profile of "fanatic tourist" described by Benjamin et al (2012) is characterised by purchasing more souvenirs.…”