Pretending you’re Frodo in New Zealand or ordering a Cosmopolitan at the pub where Sex and the City’s Carrie used to sip her cocktails. It’s becoming an increasingly popular holiday pastime, whose economic and ecological consequences can be far-reaching.
The phenomenon of people visiting places they’ve seen in films or TV shows is called movie tourism. Stijn Reijnders, a full professor of Cultural Heritage Studies, has been researching the phenomenon for a while. The European Research Council has now rewarded his work with an ERC Consolidator Grant, worth EUR 1.9 million.
Reijnders previously studied the reasons why people feel the need to travel to Transylvania to seek Count Dracula, among other movie tourism clichés. The ERC grant will allow him to expand his research team and continue his study on a global scale.
