Abstract
The chapter intends to provide an overview on literary tourism valorization. The first part identifies its main benefits, main literary places (book locations, book film adaptation sets, places related to writers, literary attractions), and literary events (festivals, book fairs, and other events). The second part presents some issues on the demand side and provides the description of two possible literary journeys, with different connections with both literary places and products. The third part of the chapter is focused on how to effectively valorize literary tourism, through the design of valuable experiences.
TopLiterature Tourism Valorization And Its Benefits
Literature, Places and Cultural Heritage
Literary works are treasuries to preserve, starting from their inspiring places. Novels, short stories or poems can be strictly connected to place intangible cultural identity (Gu & Ryan, 2008), telling a lot of places, their stories, cultures, traditions, and landscapes (Campelo et al., 2013). Writers glean abundantly from this heritage and pour it in the pages of the book.
Literature works provide sorts of little portraits, able to fix, show, share, diffuse, and preserve local identities and heritage for next generations. So, preserving a place literary heritage means also preserving its cultural identity.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Film Adaptation of a Book: The story of a book re-proposed as the screenplay of a movie. The screenplay can in some points differ from the original story of the book.
Place Brand Image: The creation and communication of a distinctive image of a place (a region or a town).
Literary Places: Places connected to writers, books, their movie adaptations, or literary events.
Realms of Experience: In their model Pine and Gilmore (1999) identify 4 basic realms of experiences, according to the type of customer participation (active or passive) and the type of connection with the event (absorption or immersion). The four realms are: entertainment, educational, esthetic, and escapist.
Sense of Place: A special emotional connection with a place.