High season is coming: travel motivations of Game of Thrones fans

Abstract

ABSTRACT Despite substantial evidence that media fans are increasingly travelling to the filming locations for movies and TV series, research on core tribal fan film tourists’ travel motivations remains limited. This paper contributes to the scarce literature on this question with a study of the fan tourism phenomenon inspired by the fiction TV series Game of Thrones. The study is based on 68 semi-structured in-depth interviews with fans of the series; specifically, core fan community members who have travelled to one or more of the series’ filming locations. A thematic analysis of the interview responses reveals three main travel motivations: affective identification with characters; the existence of parallels between fiction and history; and the desire to feel part of a collective identity. The findings suggest that tourism motivated by Game of Thrones is the result of a profound emotional and narrative attachment to the series on the part of fans, with a combination of playful and serious elements. On the theoretical level, this paper contributes to the scholarly literature on fan film tourism. It also reveals that a better understanding of fans’ needs could support tourist destination managers in the creation of added value for fan film tourists.