The spaces of Spanish fiction cinema as a factor of tourism promotion of indigenous geographical and cultural heritage

Ref. HAR2016-77734-P. Funded by the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (MICIU) of the Government of Spain.

Summary

Fiction cinema is a communicative manifestation that, due to its impact on imagination, memory and spectatorial feelings, motivates the desire to know the real spaces shown on the screen, determining the choice of tourist destinations. Such circumstance has led to the pairing between the tourism industry and commercial cinema for the mutual benefit.

The general objective is to analyse the way in which Spanish fiction cinema acts as a tourist promoter of the geographical space and the autochthonous cultural heritage. The specific objective is to establish the form, the extent and the socio-economic consequences with which Spanish fiction cinema has been using indigenous spaces over time as a tourist attraction.

Methodologically, the approach to the corpus will be made from a plural perspective. Through various levels of analysis, we will work with a large number of Spanish films constituted by those titles whose exhibition of the national geography – natural and urban – supposes a relevant discursive factor. As a result of the data obtained, it is intended to establish a global vision, not only of the way in which Spanish cinema has been acting throughout its history to promote indigenous geographical and cultural heritage, but of its specific effects on the configuration of the territory Spanish – from the specificity of its different communities – as a top-notch destination for foreign and domestic tourism.

The originality of the project – intended as a continuation and necessary complement of the previous two developed by the CITur group – lies in its interdisciplinary nature that combines the field of Humanities with that of Social Sciences, allowing three levels to be linked: that of formal, ideological and cultural films analysis and their intersection with the sociopolitical reality and interests of the tourism and film industries.

Results

Part of the research results were disseminated from the collective book Viajes de cine. Valencia, Tirant Humanidades, 2017. The rest were published in articles in national and international journals (see Publications).