The impacts of crime TV series on the formation of the image of tourist destinations

Abstract

Tourism continues to be one of the sectors that has undergone the biggest changes. Cinema has played an important role in tourism, offering not only visits to the filming locations of series and films, but also allowing tourists to experience the atmosphere of cinematographic production. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the impacts of crime television series on the formation of the image of cities as tourist destinations. We analyzed 929 reviews made by viewers of eight crime television series available on the IMDb platform (Commissario Montalbano, Shetland, Unauthorized living, Gomorra, Dogs of Berlin, Marseille, Trapped and Sky Rojo), between October 2021 and February 2022. The series were positioned within four typologies based on the contrast between the organic image of the destination and the impact of the series on the image of the destination: positive congruence, positive incongruity, negative congruence and negative incongruity. The Marseille, Gomorrah, Shetland and Dogs of Berlin series are in the group of series which viewers' comments do not express an intention to visit or recommend a visit to the destination. The results showed that when the destination is portrayed in a negative way in the series, it can have significant impacts on the image and influence the tourist behaviour of viewers. The case of the Gomorra series is one of the most illustrative in which the series inhibited the development of tourism.

Keywords

• crime tv series
• destination impacts
• destination image
• film-induced tourism