The Spectacle of Flowering. The Media in the Creation of a Tourist Image in a Rural Area

Abstract

This study focuses on flowering as a tourist phenomenon, also known as flower tourism or blossom tourism, and its dissemination and reception in the media as a rural tourism destination. The main objective is to analyze the role of media and influencers in social networks in this diffusion. The secondary objectives are to establish coincidences between the image projected and the one perceived by tourists, as well as to know the motivations of the visitors. An exploratorydescriptive research design has allowed to characterize the type of content published by national and international media, as well as that published on Instagram. The applied survey has allowed to identify the motivations of the visitors, the locality of origin from where the people who visited the studied destination (Aitona, Catalonia) traveled and the channel through which this tourist offer was known. The article shows how, to a large extent, the arrival of tourists occurs in parallel to the tourist promotion carried out by the media and shows the role of the film Segon Origen and the publications of influencers on Instagram in the creation of the iconic tourist imaginary of the location. In the national media and on the social network, promotion is based almost exclusively on aesthetic criteria. The main motivations of the surveyed visitors also allude to taking pictures and aesthetic contemplation. The most diversified images tend to be found in the local and Catalan press, with a less simplistic approach to the phenomenon and more linked to the territory.