ABSTRACT
In a world in which information plays a vital role in human activities, everything becomes connected, and a new sort of creative economy rises. This scenario provides the development of new communication and entertainment means, new behavior patterns, cultural values, and emerging habits. Consequently, there is an intensification of the flow of individuals in search of new tourist products throughout the globe. Several cities and their attractions have their structures projected into virtual realms, for instance, through video games, an electronic game played on a computing device (personal computer, gaming console, tablet or mobile phone). In this work, the term video game will be used in the broadest possible sense, including any forms of computer-based entertainment software, either text or image-based, using whichever electronic platform and involving one or multiple players in a 306physical or networked environment. This study observes the tourist demand for destinations and locations due to playing video games, specifically the Assassin’s Creed Series in Italy. Video game players visit cities, villages, fortresses, castles virtually, consuming information about these places. These people look for cultural products regarding cultural activities, which own cultural and social importance, feeding their interests and hobbies. Focused on user-generated content (UGC) produced on Assassin’s Creed II and Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, this research aims to identify a demand from players who, either have visited or intend to visit Italy due to the game, and to verify different types of promotion, as well as official and unofficial support to these travelers. The results of this analysis show that through playing those games, people are becoming aware of some destinations and locations, by combining their desire to visit these places grew after playing the games. There is a demand for services related to the Assassin’s Creed players and the sites presented in the video games. However, the lack of official support and a wider range of services offered to these tourists make them create their information, displaying it online on blogs, virtual galleries, customized tour guides, and video tours. Private companies are offering guided tours in some of the locations; but very little official support from Italian tourism entities could be found.
