Spanish tourism cinema and institutional policies on development.

Since its beginnings, cinema proved to have a huge role in shaping the social imaginary, not only for its condition as mass media, but also for the unique characteristics of its modes of representation and reception, which made it ideal for this purpose. In this sense, it is now clear the extraordinary value of films throughout the history of cinema both in spreading and shaping the image of countries and its high efficiency in arousing the interest of the audience to know them. There is no doubt that the appeal exerted by the seventh art makes viewers a determining factor in the chain of psychological processes and protocols governing tourism activity and determine the choice of a destination by the potential traveller.

Cinema’s ability to colonise the imaginary, whether individual or social, was soon noticed by the governmental powers of the various countries that knew how to exploit it in their best interest, including in the field of tourism. Spain was one of the first European states to pay institutional attention to tourism, and to have political interest to use movies as a way of spreading and defending national image compared to traditional stereotypes from the outside. That governmental interest has been undergoing changes of various kinds, not only on the basis of successive historical-political situations, but because of the same evolution of the phenomenon of tourism at national and international levels.

Reflecting on the nature of the relationship between Spanish tourism fictional cinema and institutional policies on development, from their circumstances and intensity over time, is the subject of the Third International Conference on Cinema and Tourism.