ABSTRACT
The introduction opens the study with a striking example of overtourism at the heart of Europe: Venice. Examining local and resident reactions to excessive touristification (including the staging of a protest), overcrowding of heritage hotspots in the city and the measures taken in response by local administration, it highlights some of the key issues on which the book focuses. These involve the ways tourist visitations affect the natural and cultural environments of the destination, modify its affective atmospheres of (in)hospitality, thus producing narratives of tourismophobia (fear of and hostility toward tourists), but also how these are communicated in media formats. It is clarified that the book explores these issues specifically in the context of cinematic tourist development. The chapter concludes with a presentation of the book’s structure.
