Film tourism in Spain: Destination awareness and visit motivation as determinants to visit places seen in TV series

Abstract TV series have become one of the most successful types of audio-visual product. Their potential to cultivate massive loyal audiences makes them an excellent medium for promoting the places they depict, presenting them as attractive destinations, and inducing the phenomenon known as film tourism. The present study aims to shed light on the determinants behind viewers’ decisions to visit a destination they have seen in a TV series. More specifically, two aspects acknowledged as antecedents of travel decisions were considered: destination awareness and visit motivation. To this end, quantitative questionnaires were carried out with domestic tourists during their visits to destinations depicted in Spanish TV series. The collected data was analysed through tests of independence and a binary logistic regression, in which the respondents’ sociodemographic characteristics were used as control variables. The results corroborate that both factors significantly influence the decision to visit film destinations, whereas the effect of destination awareness is stronger.