ABSTRACT
The convergence of media consumption and tourist practices convincingly refutes Meyrowitz’s argument that media contribute to an emergence of “a placeless culture”. Starting from the assumption that place is an experiential accomplishment binding people and environments, this chapter aims to investigate how the filming location of a TV series becomes meaningful through the imaginative, practical, and emotional engagements of its audiences. Der Bergdoktor is a German-Austrian drama TV series (2008-) that gained a considerable cross-generational audience in Slovenia when first aired in summer 2016 and prompted an increased tourist interest in Tyrol in 2016-2017. In this specific case of the Der Bergdoktor phenomenon, we are interested in how Slovenian TV series fans make sense of Tyrol as they engage in imaginative travelling by consuming and producing media content, as well as through ordered patterns of physical movement as tourists on guided tours re-enacting and re-establishing familiarity with place. In this chapter, we will demonstrate how in their experience and multilayered performances they reconcile imagined landscapes and topographical reality by means of unravelling numerous intertwined personal, factual, and fictional narratives and how they acquire a sense of belonging and identity grounded in and beyond media content itself.
