Media tourism through atmospheric practice

Abstract

Literary, film-induced, or media tourism tends to focus on visits to material places associated with fictional worlds and their creators (Beeton, 2015; Reijnders, 2016). Research has shown that visitors are attracted to the links between stories and sites, ranging from the Georgian architecture reminiscent of Bridgerton settings to places that are only tenuously rumoured to have inspired fantasy authors (Lovell & Thurgill, 2021). However, future concerns about the sustainability of travel may mean that we require more imaginative ways to link stories to places, extending media tourism beyond the physical proximity to tourism markers. Also, as McLaughlin (2016) observes, some tourists who are unable to travel to designated mediatised locations expand the texts into their local area. This example serves to illustrate the compulsion of tourists to mediatise a variety of environments in order to spatially experience stories. The aim of this brief investigation is therefore to examine how media tourism extends into places that are unconnected to narratives but are infused with their atmosphere. Two theories are synthesised to achieve this aim: first, the notions of texts as spatial (Hones, 2011, 2014; Thurgill & Lovell, 2019) and, second, Bille and Simonsen's (2021) concept of solitary ‘atmospheric practice’. In this theoretical context, the study examines examples that illuminate both attuned states of mind and the spontaneous intersubjectivity that characterises the lived experience of media tourism through atmospheric practice.