Abstract
The destination image is a complex construction in which the different sources of information consulted are decisive. Among these information sources, we can find films, which have a relevant function to create destination images. Films are one of the factors that most influences people in their motivation to travel to a destination. The academic literature on film tourism has grown considerably in recent years, but an updated revision is needed. Due to this fact, the main contribution of this paper is the proposal of an updated review of the academic literature focused on film tourism and destinations and their management implications. The general objective of this research is to analyse the existing literature, systematising the relationships that exist between films, film tourism, destination image, and tourist destination. To this end, a systematic review of the literature has been carried out, with two aims: on the one hand, a review of the existing literature from a descriptive perspective, showing the main publications, authors and topics, and on the other hand, a review from a thematic perspective. The results of the latter will be addressed in the discussion and conclusions. The results of the descriptive analysis highlight the significant growth in the literature analysed over the last 45 years, especially between 2005 and 2015. They also underline that the most studied topics are film destinations, marketing and destination image. The results of the thematic analysis highlight the importance of films and series as important information sources on the creation of destination images. The thematic analysis also provides information on the negative and positive aspects of film destination management.
Highlights
Cinema is a key information source for the creation of images of destinations; this is of great importance, since these images have a decisive influence on the tourist’s choice of destination [1,2,3]
While the first studies of the 1990s presented this new phenomenon in which cinema and tourism were examined on the basis of the benefits provided by tourist activity in the destinations [16,17,18], studies from 2000 onwards have analysed this form of tourism in greater depth [19], carrying out research that is classified into two main groups: 1. On the one hand, we find that research on film tourism in which an analysis of the practical context is conducted is prevalent
? (ii) What are the main advantages and disadvantages that film tourism poses for destinations? The first question is discussed in the results of the systematic literature review and describing the analysis of the main components of the research
Summary
Cinema is a key information source for the creation of images of destinations; this is of great importance, since these images have a decisive influence on the tourist’s choice of destination [1,2,3]. Tourist spaces have the opportunity to show the most outstanding elements of the destination through films, and this helps individuals to perceive the destination image according to what the destination manager wants to show. This communication channel is considered one of the most influential, given its inductive nature and since it is not as aggressive as conventional advertising [3,7,8,9,10]. The number of travellers motivated by film tourism has increased from 40 million tourists in 2012 to 80 million in 2018 [12]. This increase has gone hand in hand with the strong development of the audio-visual world in its different genres [13]
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