For decades, Northern Ireland was best known for the violent conflict referred to as the Troubles. However, the filming of HBO's Game of Thrones in Northern Ireland has had a profound effect on boosting tourism numbers as well as the country's image in the global awareness. This article examines the role of Game of Thrones tour guides as cultural mediators who are uniquely positioned to redefine the image of Northern Ireland. Through an analysis of the guides’ tour narratives, this article demonstrates how tour guides redefine the past and construct an image for the future of Northern Ireland via the fantasy world of Game of Thrones. It concludes that tourism provides a platform for communicating new social imaginaries.
After comparing the harbour before us to the image depicted in the screen-shot, Chris also plays a few video clips on his tablet to remind us what the on-screen version of the harbour looked like and to point out recognizable features. Other screen tourism scholars have commented on the intersection of the real and fantasy landscapes that play a crucial role in the tourist experience (Buchmann, 2010; Roesch, 2009; Waysdorf and Reijnders, 2017). The case most similar to GoT is that of Lord of the Rings (LOTR) tourism in New Zealand, where much of the lming took place in many of the countrys stunning rural landscapes and which continues to attract tourists. Goh (2014) describes how the physical landscape of the site meets the fantasy landscape and is materialized by their juxtaposition during the tours. However, unlike the LOTR locations which have left sets in place, such as the village of Hobbiton, the vast majority of GoT lm sites contain none of the infrastructure of the show.3 Wha
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The lack of GoT infrastructure allows guides use the tour as a way to ultimately show off the real Northern Ireland by way of the fantasy world of Westeros.
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The tours consist of an eclectic combination of GoT lming locations, facts about the geology and geography of the North Antrim coastline, Celtic legends and Northern Irish history. The weaving of information of the real Northern Ireland into the GoT tour occurs throughout the day as the bus passes various locations with or without an association to the show. While driving in between locations, the guides point out sites that have no connection to GoT, but are well known locally. Sites such as Rathlin Island, where Robert the Bruce took refuge during his ght for Scottish independence, and Loughareema (aka the Vanishing Lake) where the otherworldly Children of Lir appear and disappear along with the lake itself. The landscape, along with the Celtic mythology, complements the fantasy theme of GoT. The guides tour narrative switches seamlessly between the ctitious landscape of Westeros and the real landscape of Northern Ireland in a way that wouldnt necessarily work on an urban city to
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Reijnders et al. (2021: 9) point to the reciprocity between the tour narrative and the selection of sites: locations are chosen because they t well with the story, but at the same time, these stories reafrm and empower the associations that the location inspires. Within a tourism context, the symbolic power of landscapes can therefore be legitimised as alternative perceptions and powerful consumption experiences and economies (Goh, 2014: 280).
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