Fabulous Locations: Tourism and Fantasy Films in Italy

Fiction films and TV series are used extensively for tourism promotion and their potential to induce tourist flows is widely recognized. Some celebrated examples such as The Lord of the Rings (2001–2003) in New Zealand, Harry Potter (2001–2011) in Great Britain, and Game of Thrones (2011–2019), filmed across several European countries, belong to the fantasy genre. This particular genre, with its often imaginary settings and reliance on digital effects that sometimes deeply affect the representation of place, brings challenges for tourist marketing and for the management of film-related heritage sites. The first part of this chapter will introduce film tourism in its various forms. It will deal with issues of authenticity, place identity, and heritage, especially in relation to well-known fantasy films and TV series widely discussed by academic literature. The second part will focus on fantasy films shot in Italy and explore how they have been used for tourism promotion. These include American movies belonging to worldly famous franchises, but also Italian (co-)productions such as The Invisible Boy (2014) by Gabriele Salvatores and Tale of Tales (2015) by Matteo Garrone. These two films, counting on large budgets, raised high expectations of their potential in terms of tourism promotion. This occasionally led to the development of initiatives which brilliantly take advantage of the specific features of the genre for promoting local heritage in the eyes of both residents and tourists.