Zsuzsa Deli-Gray (ed.)

Cases in Tourism Marketing III

Tuscany – The Taste of Experience and the Scent of Cinema

Anna, a freshly graduated tourism student, finally decided to fulfil a long-standing item on her bucket list: to embark on a unique journey across Europe guided by a culinary film map. Her goal was to visit iconic destinations where film and local cuisine converge – not only visually but emotionally. Her first stop was Tuscany, the sun-drenched Italian region famous both as the backdrop for countless films and as one of the world’s most renowned gastronomic destinations.

From the airport she headed straight to Montepulciano. In the hilltop town, time seemed to slow. She chose a small family-run trattoria for lunch, its terrace overlooking the cypress-lined landscape. The air was filled with the scent of rosemary, garlic, and roasted tomatoes. The owner, an elderly man who looked more like a retired actor than a restaurateur, approached her with a glass of Chianti. “Did you come here because of the movies?” he asked, smiling – as if he already knew the answer. Anna nodded. “Yes. For the films, for the food… and maybe for myself too.” “Then you’ve come to the right place, signorina,” he replied warmly, sitting down beside her. “My name’s Massimo. I used to be an extra once – just in the background of Under the Tuscan Sun, when Diane Lane’s character was shopping at the local market. Those scenes sold this region better than any brochure ever could,” he said with pride.

Anna jotted something in her notebook: “A place, as a sensory space, is not just a backdrop but a stage for the search for self.” She wasn’t sure where she had read that before – perhaps in one of her university texts – but now she truly understood it. Film doesn’t just tell a story; it creates a place one can long for. Massimo soon returned with two steaming bowls of ribollita. “Tourists often ask if this is the same soup the actress ate in the film,” he laughed. “And what do you tell them?” Anna asked. “I tell them I don’t know – but if I ever forget my own recipe, that’ll be the day I close my doors,” he said with a grin. They both laughed. The ribollita was simple, hot, deeply comforting. Anna wasn’t sure whether it was the food or the conversation, but something inside her quieted. That evening, back at her lodging, she wrote in her travel blog: “Today I tasted something I had only seen on screen. The cinema was the appetiser – life itself is the main course.”

The next morning, she set off into the vineyards. Workers greeted her with waves, one of them handing her a bunch of freshly picked grapes. “This is the true taste of Tuscany,” he said. In that moment, Anna realised that the landscapes and tables she had seen in films were not romantic illusions but lived realities – stories of work, tradition, and people. Sitting under a vine pergola, she closed her eyes and could almost hear the melodies from those films. But now, it was not cinema’s music she heard – it was the soundscape of the place itself: the wind, the cicadas, the distant toll of a church bell. That was the moment when Tuscany became not just a destination, but a personal memory – a lived, sensory experience that belonged to her.

Tartalomjegyzék

Kiadó: Akadémiai Kiadó

Online megjelenés éve: 2026

ISBN: 978 963 664 217 4

Marketing Turizmus

The publication of the third volume of Cases in Tourism Marketing is truly welcome news from both an educational and a professional perspective. Through real-world, timely, and thought-provoking cases, this collection helps readers – students and practitioners alike – gain a deeper understanding of the complex world of decision-making in tourism marketing. The case studies not only convey professional knowledge but also develop analytical skills, problem-solving abilities, and critical thinking. One of the volume’s key strengths is its focus on issues that define contemporary tourism, including the role of digitalization, artificial intelligence, destination branding, and stakeholder collaboration in tourism marketing. Long-awaited and highly relevant, this third volume is a worthy continuation of the previous collections and will undoubtedly serve as a valuable resource in higher education in tourism, while also being highly recommended to professionals who enjoy reflecting on challenges and opportunities beyond their own immediate field of expertise.

Tamara Ratz PhD

Director, Centre for International Relations, Kodolányi János University

Head of Tourism Department, Professor of Tourism

It is an honor for me to recommend this volume to everyone who wishes to understand tourism marketing not only in theory, but also through its real business and human dimensions. The worlds of tourism and hospitality have undergone fundamental changes in recent years, which makes case studies based on real market situations, decision-making dilemmas and current challenges especially valuable in supporting both learning and critical thinking. This book provides not only professional knowledge, but also encourages a complex mindset, creative problem-solving and the ability to think in connections — exactly the skills today’s tourism professionals need most. I wholeheartedly recommend this volume to students, educators and tourism professionals alike.

Judit Fodor (Liptai)

Group Director of Sales and Marketing, Danubius Hotels

Hivatkozás: https://mersz.hu/deli-gray-cases-in-toursim-marketing-iii//

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