In search of literature about the influence of film tourism on current travel trends and developments, I came across the book “Film and Tourism : Case Studies on Tourist Behavior” by Marco Valeri (Valeri, 2025) where the topic is analysed through various studies in 6 different chapters, written by 16 different authors and set in 9 different countries. In one of the chapters, which particularly caught my attention, Diórgenes Mamédio et al talked about different, often paradoxical, types of authenticity in films, analysed through different movies shot in Morocco (Mamédio et al, 2025).
The Dimensions of Cinematic Consumption
Mamédio et al talk about three different contexts of consuming cinema; there is the real context, the fake context and the scenographic context. In a real context a movie is set in a real place, so a film set in Morocco which was also shot in Morocco, like “Prince of the Streets” (2000). In a fake context, the real place is conjured up by the filmmakers, so a movie set in Morocco but shot in Hollywood, like “Casablanca” (1942). A scenographic context means that a movie was shot in a real place that represents someplace else, like “Gladiator” (2000) which was filmed in Morocco, but plays somewhere else (Mamédio et al, 2025).
Ourzazate – Morrocco’s very own Hollywood
Ourzazate, in the local Berber language meaning “noiseless” is set between the Atlas Mountains and the Sahara dessert of Morocco, where it is eerily quiet to a European ear, no birdsong, no leaves rustling in the wind and no river running. Ourzazate and its surrounding regions is popularly used by film directors for scenes and movies set in the dessert as well as the Middle East. Not only does the landscape offer great backdrops for various movies, there is also Aït-Ben-Haddou, a small village built from clay, where many movies were filmed. Not only scenery and ancient structures make it a good location for filming, but also the weather conditions are ideal with bright sun on at least 300 days a year (Mamédio et al, 2025).
Analysis Results
Mamédio and his colleagues used virtual ethnography, where they analysed data taken from openly accessible websites, such as consumer’s summaries and ratings of movies, comments, videos, texts on travel websites, and many more sources (Mamédio et al, 2025). These texts were then analysed and categorised. In the following I just want to very quickly summarise what I took away from the results, this summary is by far not conclusive.
I found particularly interesting how, a lot of the time, fakery in movies is being done so well that many viewers won’t ever question whether what they see is real or not. Even though the movie “Casablanca” was not filmed in Morocco at all, many tourists will visit Casablanca, looking for the famous café featured in the movie. This has gone on for so long that someone has now actually built this café and visitors come there none the wiser, thinking they are at the original set of the movie. This shows that for the viewers it does not really matter, whether what they are observing is actual reality or just pure fakery, as long as it feels real to them. It showcases how fake and authentic can coexist and how sometimes movies can create reality from fakery, conjuring into real life what used to only live on movie screens (Mamédio et al, 2025).
To the film tourist it does not matter whether the movie “Casablanca” was actually filmed in the city Casablanca. Watching it can still create the desire to travel there and see it with your own eyes. The same is true the other way around; tourists might still prefer to travel to Morocco to see where “Gladiator” was filmed, even though the scenes filmed there are actually set in the Colosseum in Rome. Thus the tension between the different dimensions in cinema continues on within the viewers.
Mamédio talks about how cinematic tourists travel between worlds. They exist within the tension between fake and authentic created by the cinema, and with their influence imagined worlds can blur together with or even become the real world (Mamédio et al, 2025).
Literature:
- Film and Tourism : Case Studies on Tourist Behavior (Article by Mamédio et al, page 39, 2025)
https://link-1springer-1com-12l2ru6dv0314.perm.fh-joanneum.at/book/10.1007/978-3-031-86874-0
