The Montalbano effect: re-branding Sicily as a tourist destination?

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to focus on movie tourism, specifically on the “Montalbano effect”, which has seen increments in tourist visits to Sicilian sites featuring in the episodes of the popular TV series. It explores the concepts of genre and evaluative language in websites offering Montalbano tours in Sicily in an interdisciplinary perspective, aiming to combine insights from Tourism and Linguistics to analyse the phenomenon.

Design/methodology/approach

The language of two corpora, one consisting of sites offering traditional Sicilian tours and another of sites devoted to Montalbano, is analysed in terms of genre and evaluative language.

Findings

The study shows an emerging genre and genre hybridity that, it is suggested, are in response to market trends and may represent beginnings of a re-branding of Sicily as a tourist destination, away from past negative stereotypes associating the island with organised crime.

Originality/value

The interdisciplinary aspect of the study represents a significant step towards a wider involvement of different disciplines in understanding an important social phenomenon.

Citation

Ponton, D.M. and Asero, V. (2015), "The Montalbano effect: re-branding Sicily as a tourist destination?", On the Horizon, Vol. 23 No. 4, pp. 342-351. https://doi.org/10.1108/OTH-05-2015-0014