Locating imagination: An interdisciplinary perspective on literary, film, and music tourism

This research note introduces the design of a recently launched research project at the Erasmus University Rotterdam. The topic of this new research project is media tourism, the phenomenon of people traveling to places because of an association with a film, television series, novel, song, or other media product. Recently significant growth has been detected in this form of tourism, with far-reaching consequences for the locations concerned. The aim of this project is to discover why and under what circumstances popular media products give rise to new tourism flows, and which variations can be found based on the specific characteristics of the medium, the tourist, and the location involved. Media tourism has received a growing amount of attention from scholars in various academic disciplines. However, the existing knowledge about this phenomenon is still highly fragmented. This project aims to be the first in which interdisciplinary research will be conducted, involving an analysis and comparison of literary, cinematic, and musical examples of media tourism. By investigating commonalities and differences, we intend to highlight how literature, film, and music, each in their own way, stimulate the geographical imagination and literally "move" their audiences. The research is based on a combination of qualitative content analysis, ethnographic fieldwork, and experimental methods.

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