Old Spaces, New Mysteries

The novel The Da Vinci Code was published in 2003, the film adaption was released three years later, in 2006. After the worldwide success of both, there was a significant increase in the number of thematic sightseeing tours organized across Europe focusing on the iconic - and already very touristic - locations described in the novel and showed in the adaptation. Taking The Da Vinci Code-tourism as an example, the aim of this study is twofold. It attempts, on the one hand, to demonstrate the differences between book- and film-induced tourism with a focus on the specific techniques that construct specific spaces. On the other hand, it reveals how we can describe and define the touristic experience when the audience is exposed to the differences between the transmedial representation and physical reality of a location.