Deliverable 4.1 Location marketing and cultural tourism Crime narratives as destination branding Edited by Cathrin Bengesser Kim Toft Hansen Lynge Stegger Gemzøe WP number and title: WP4 – Creative Industries: Media Industries and location marketing strategies for a transcultural European space Task number and title: 4.1 and 4.2: “Understanding transnational European production and location strategies” & “Understanding pub- lishing and translation strategies in the European cultural space” Lead beneficiary: AAU Type: Report Dissemination level: Public Due date: Month 22 Actual date of delivery: 11 February 2020 Revised: 9 December 2020 This1 reportExecutive presents research Summaryinto location placement in Although the capitals of Europe still play a very im- popular cultural crime narratives across the European con- portant locative role in crime narratives and in popular cul- tinent. Considering the British, Nordic and South-Eastern ture in general, the report finds an increasing production European context, the report evaluates strategies in the interest in cities and places away from the central cities cultural, creative and tourism industries regarding the of Europe. Crime narratives have, to an increasing degree, choice of European locations and settings for local or trans- been able to profile rural areas, peripheral locations and national crime stories in literature, film and television. smaller towns for a potentially international audience. One the one hand, the report shows an increasing in- From Aberystwyth in Wales, to Ystad in Sweden, to Trieste ternational awareness from producers, funding schemes, in Italy, to Braşov in Romania, there is less attention to- distributors and broadcasters of both local and translocal wards cosmopolitan Europe and more interest in rural-ur- place branding in and through crime stories. On the other ban integration of a European popular cultural spatial men- hand, it becomes obvious that stakeholders across the Eu- tality. ropean continent have not yet reached the full potential On the one hand, less cosmopolitan crime stories place of popular cultural place branding. the stories at geopolitically sensitive transcultural places The overarching methodology for the report is location with suspense as the narrative result. On the other hand, studies, which provides a model for scrutinizing both the these productions show a more translocal place identity locative, representational features of crime narratives as across the continent. This means that crime narratives well as their production context. For literature, film and draw attention towards local places across Europe, but TV series, this means close inspections of the geographical share a great number of similarities in the way the produc- places they depict, the sites of production and writing, tions do this. For instance, the conversion of the rural Nor- which can both become touristic destinations, and are sub- wegian areas in the TV series Eyewitness (2014) into similar ject to policies of place. Transylvanian locations in Silent Valley (2016) indicate sty- Today, the settings of crime fiction are more than a listic transculturalism in European crime serial production. backdrop or a symbolic place in which a narrative takes In other words, the locations change, but the stylistic and place. Now, locations have become ‘big business’, as it narrative ‘language’ used to address locations and themes has become increasingly important to brand places in a becomes a transcultural communication tool. fierce market economy. Crime narratives offer distinct op- Finally, this report formulates a policy perspective to portunities to use, construct and reimagine places in a way be considered in the future: While subsidy programmes that attracts funding for film and TV productions as well as have incentivized transnational collaboration by motivat- tourists and visitors interested in places they have read ing film and TV producers to navigate across national about or seen on screen. boundaries, further integration of European transcultural The report highlights the continued importance and identities can come from incentivizing stories that deal leadership of the British TV industries and the crime nar- with transcultural and transnational regions on the conti- ratives originating from the Nordic region. Regarding the nent. This calls for increased policy incentives to produce branding of places, the UK examples stress that production narratives that take place in less used locations. The pos- companies, broadcasters and subsidy schemes strategically itive results from this will be a) a new European narrative develop crime narratives through embedding a deliberate quality around places less often recounted in popular cul- sense of place, ready for other players to advance into cul- ture and b) a potentially increased trans-European aware- tural tourism. The UK analyses are indicative of the British ness of a rural and less cosmopolitan European transcul- peak market position in popular culture in general as well tural identity. To be ‘united in diversity’ also means to be as in the production of popular crime narratives. united in a rural and urban spatiality of Europe. Showing Besides the UK dominance, the report underlines the attention towards less profiled places means that such important role played by the Nordic region during the places may be transculturally integrated rather than past decades of transnational spread of crime narratives. treated as peripheral to centralized continentalism. Location placement in the Nordic region’s production of Although the breadth of the report’s research indicates crime narratives has not only been increasingly strategic; a range of trans-European tendencies, the researchers and the region has also grown able to capitalize on an interna- institutions behind this report (represented through the tional interest in the places on screen and collaboration partners working on the DETECt work package 4) produce with players off-screen. This awareness is part of the con- a blind spot around Western European countries. Firstly, tinued transnational co-production within the Nordic re- the presumption based on general knowledge produced by gion. This has given rise to further external co-productions the research project is that the tendencies uncovered in with players outside the Nordic region. this report will also apply to countries such as Germany, In parts of the South-Eastern European context, the re- Belgium and Spain. Secondly, this stresses that there is a port finds less strategic efforts towards location branding future need for further location studies across Europe. through crime narratives. Besides the exploitation of Thirdly, the blind spots of the report’s results point to- North-Italian crime production close to Slovenia, the East- wards further work within production research for upcom- ern European location branding is, partly, dominated by ing deliverables as well as DETECt research in general. global players producing in places that are relatively un- fledged in a strategic international branding of urban and rural places through popular culture. Nevertheless, pro- ductions and narratives in the region show a fascinating lo- Kim Toft Hansen cation awareness and an increasing international atten- tion towards Eastern European places and production ser- vices. This is similar to the UK and the Nordic region, indi- cating that the South-Eastern region may be next in line in the international attention towards places on screen. 1 Contents 1 Executive Summary 1 2 Locating Europe: Recommendations and overview 5 Report overview Key contexts and trends for locating Europe in contemporary popular culture Conclusions and recommendations: A spatial shift in policy PART I. SELLING THE NORTH THROUGH CRIME FICTION 10 3 Locative media in screen tourism: The production of the DETECt Aarhus app 11 Augmenting places through locative screen tourism A typology of mediated tourism experiences Who are the screen tourists? The DETECt Aarhus App Testing the pilot version Conclusion: from tourist to screen tourist 4 Wallander and Millennium as Swedish crime tourism: Two diverging location marketing strategies 17 Stockholm or crime avoidance From player synergies to a tourism cluster in Ystad Between appropriation and avoidance of an ‘illegitimate’ culture The value of image Conclusion: Crime fiction and its paradoxical appeal 5 Location placement in Nordic Noir 22 Banal Nordism Producing regional proximities The geography of production Tourism-induced production Local topography and spatial branding Screen agencies and policies of place as locative factors From banal Nordism to banal Europeaness? Conclusion: Uncertainties and opportunities PART II. THE RISE OF SOUTH-EASTERN EUROPEAN CRIME FICTION 28 6 Locating Budapest in contemporary Hungarian crime fiction 29 Budapest as iconic location Pinnacles of the Hungarian neo-Noir Quality TV in Hungary Budapest Noir: A novel about a sinful city Budapest Noir: A film about a sinful city Golden Life: A TV series about a sinful city Conclusions 2 7 Spatial representations of local color: Potential cultural tourism through Greek crime narratives 36 Petros Markaris and The Costas Haritos series Alexis Alexiou and Wednesday 4.45 The transmedia universe of Eteros Ego Conclusions 8 Transylvanian Location Aesthetics and Policies: Case Studies Valea Mută and Hackerville 42 Transylvanian Landscapes and Modern Mythology Film Industry and Film Tourism in Transylvania Silent