Transmedia Tourism editorial

Abstract

This Editorial sketches out some initial contexts and parameters for the concept of transmedia tourism-the academic neologism which the articles in this Special Issue explore in greater detail. It is argued that transmedia tourism should be understood as a historical term whose emergence is intertwined with both theories of convergence culture (Jenkins 2006) and the experience economy (Pine and Gilmore 1998). The Editorial also reflects upon the methodologies used for exploring transmedia tourism throughout the Special Issue, offering reflections on and dismissals of objections to autoethnography as a way of studying how mediated spaces are experienced from an anthropological perspective.

‘I felt more homely over there … ’: analysing tourists’ experience of Indianness at Bollywood Parks Dubai

“…Theme Parks are hybrid media that rely on the co-operation between various media industries (Carla & Frietag, 2015, p. 151). As media content is increasingly inducted into tourist experiences, fan-tourists are eager to make meaningful physical encounters with their favourite fictional narratives (Garner, 2019). Therefore, theme park spaces should not be studied in isolation but in connection with the media industries that lend theme parks their structure and form.…”

“…However, newer developments in unpacking the transmedia nature of theme parks, consider the embodied and spatialized aspects of transmedia storytelling that is elusive in previous definitions (Williams, 2020). Consequently, Garner (2019) places theme park spaces at the intersection of transmediality, tourism and experience economy. He says a theme park intersperses the real and imaginary, and creates a liminal leisure space utilizing various textual forms such as well-known stereotypes and themes from popular culture in general.…”