1st Edition

Magical Tourism and Enchanting Geographies Storytelling, Heritage, Fantasy, and Folklore

Edited By Jane Lovell, Nitasha Sharma Copyright 2025
236 Pages 14 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

236 Pages 14 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

This book explores the events, attractions, and places that comprise magical tourism. It showcases magical storytelling, ecologies, realities, entities, belief systems, cultural heritage, and rituals leading to spiritual, otherworldly, enchanting, mindful, interconnected, green, and dark experiences. The volume offers the reader insights into the exciting, popular new tourism trend of magical... Read more

Acknowledgement Part I. Introducing Magical Tourism 1. Conceptualizing Magical Tourism Jane Lovell, Nitasha Sharma 2. Tracing the Roots of Magical Tourism Nitasha Sharma, Jane Lovell Part II. Mapping Magical Stories 3. Enchanted on Dartmoor: Uncanny Experiences and More-Than-Human Affects on the Trail of ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’ David McLaughlin 4. Can You Hear the Knights Breathing? Invisible Heritage and the Magic of Alderley Edge Victoria Flood Part III. Mythic Events 5. 'Once Upon a Time, Somewhere in Europe…': Mythicisation and Identity Crafting in Renaissance Festivals Reagan Yessler, Katrina Stack 6. Save the Date! Witches’ Reunion Every Friday 13th: A Case Study of Montalegre (Portugal) Ana Sofia Duque Part IV. Magical Creatures 7. Messengers of Inari: Staging Red Foxes as Sacred and Magical in Japanese Captive Wildlife Tourism Émilie Crossley, Cecilia De Bernardi 8. Rights and Welfare of Mythical Creatures within Tourism: A Critical Reflection Neil Carr, Paul Tully Part V. Magical Communities and Belief Systems 9. Myths and Destination Identity: A Case of Newars from Patan, Nepal Roshis Krishna Shrestha, Patrick J.N. L’Espoir Decosta 10. Sacred Time and Space: Magic, Immanent Epics, and Dangerous Women in Jaunsar-Bawar Hans Utter Part VI. Magical Junctures 11. Down the Rabbit Hole and Back Again: Magical Portals in Media Tourism Merit Zimmerman, Stijn Reijnders 12. Casting a Spell over Northern Ireland: The Alchemy of Mixing Real Folklore and Heritage with the Fantasy and Magic of Game of Thrones to Create Tourism Gold Peter Bolan, Mihaela Ghisoiu 13. A Trip Amongst Spirits: Tourism, Affect, and the Supernatural in Tōno, Japan Annaclaudia Martini  Index

Biography

Jane Lovell is at reader at Canterbury Christ Church University where she teaches tourism and events, specialising in creative destinations, green festivals, event experience design, and heritage tourism. Her research and publications focus on heritage and include storytelling, myth, legends and folklore, fantasy, magical, film and literary tourism, light shows, place agency, new animism, and more-than human eventscapes.

Nitasha Sharma is a lecturer at the Department of Geography, University of Alabama (USA). She is a tourism geographer whose research broadly examines the multiple and contested representations of place and spatial behavior through projects situated in critical tourism studies. She specialises in the perception of authenticity, dark tourism, folklore and heritage, magical tourism, rituals, pilgrimage, and sacred spaces.