Introduction

Media and tourism are two industries that feed off each other in an intricate network, where the entertainment industry influences the tourism industry and vice versa. Popular cultural media products like The Da Vinci Code.y Dan Brown (2003) function not only as novels in themselves but also as books and films which are part of a global entertainment sector where film production companies co-operate with destination marketing organisations as a means of gaining awareness among tourists. Thus, tourism is going through a mediatisation process where tourism and media consumption are becoming increasingly linked to one another: the tourist gaze becomes intertwined with the general consumption of media images as tourists consume mediated representations of places (cf. Crouch et al.. 2005; Crouch & Lübbren, 2003; Jansson, 2002; Riley et al.. 1998).

Meanwhile, media and communication studies have arrived at an inflection point where the interrelationship between media and space is in focus (cf. Couldry & McCarthy, 2004; Falkheimer & Jansson, 2006). This emerging field of research – communication geography – is concerned with the issue of how communication produces space and how space, in turn, produces communication. Media influence people's sense of space, and the boundaries between imaginary, symbolic and material spaces are therefore dissolving (Jansson & Falkheimer, 2006). In this context, space is seen as something negotiable and volatile. Thus, space has no fixed meaning as it is dependent on whom and in which circumstance it is observed. This means that people create their own imaginary spaces from a multitude of influences and media have a prominent role in this process (cf. Beeton, 2005; Busby & Klug, 2001; Kim & Richardson, 2003). Take, for instance, a tourist's journey to a destination.