ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the importance of fan tourism to our understandings of fans' practices and experiences, considering how affective ties to specific places offer fans the "opportunity to relocate in place a profound sense of belonging which has otherwise shifted into the textual space of media consumption". It discusses practices such as taking photographs at key sites, recreating important moments or scenes and tracking down locations as part of the broader quest for acquiring and sharing fannish knowledge that fans often engage in. Considering fan tourism also offers opportunities to consider how fan practices around self-identity and narrative are performed differently in a spatial context. The increase in a wider cultural and touristic interest in media places is considered to evaluate how sharing of spaces with non-fans, or antagonistic visitors or locals, can impact upon the experience of fan tourism or pilgrimage.
