Cinema has the power to transform real places into settings that leave a deep, often lasting impression on the collective imagination. By combining the world of audiovisual media with tourism, this unique combination has evolved into a significant cultural and economic force known as film tourism.
The Italian term for this phenomenon, cineturismo, was first introduced in 2003 during the Ischia Film Festival by Michelangelo Messina, the festival’s artistic director. What was once simply the widespread desire to “live inside a film” has now been recognized as a real phenomenon, deserving of its own definition. Already in the late 1990s, in the context of Anglo-Saxon productions, there was talk of film-induced tourism to describe the sudden increase in visitor numbers to certain locations made famous by successful films. In Italy, this concept took hold a few years later, but its validity soon became apparent, as the economies of the locations hosting film productions reaped obvious economic benefits, especially when internationally recognised stars were in the spotlight.
Hosting a film set does not only mean attracting new narratives and international visibility, but also having immediate economic benefits for the local community in terms of employment, services and promotion. However, this economic benefit is limited in time. Once the set is dismantled, the production crew moves on. From this moment, if the film has been successful and if the locations where the story took place have been adequately promoted, the location itself remarkably becomes a crucial character. The viewer, already emotionally involved in the story, desires to see the film’s settings wishing to relive the emotions experienced on screen. Here the suggestion turns into a journey, giving rise to a virtuous circle in which cinema and tourism feed off each other.
Film tourism, in fact, is not limited to a purely economic or geographical phenomenon; it has its roots in human psychology. Viewers do not simply passively observe the stories on screen; they are driven by identification with the characters, narrative immersion and a desire for authentic experiences to want to experience first-hand the emotions they felt while watching the film, and the most immediate and engaging way to do this is to visit the places where the story that impressed them so much took place.
Jonathan D. Cohen, an American psychologist and cognitive neuroscientist, an expert in the study of cognitive control and its neural mechanisms, has developed a theory that explains this phenomenon. In his 2001 article, Defining Identification: A Theoretical Look at the Identification of Audiences with Media Characters, Cohen explores how viewers establish psychological connections with media characters. If a character has happy or romantic experiences in a place, the viewer associates positive emotions with the real place, strengthening their motivation to visit it. According to Cohen’s theory, emotional and cognitive identification with film characters transforms passive enjoyment into active desire: tourists don’t just want to see the place; they want to relive the character’s emotional experiences. This process is a key reason why film locations become popular tourist destinations worldwide. This mechanism explains the worldwide success of film locations as authentic tourist destinations.
Identification depends on factors related to the characters (heroic traits, sense of humour, role in the plot), authorial factors (first-person narration, dialogue) and viewer characteristics (age, gender, personality, social motivations). Understanding and empathising with the characters increases engagement, viewing pleasure and the feeling of being immersed in the world of the story.
