"Downton Abbey" and the TV-induced Tourism

This paper aims to analyze the tourism phenomenon generated by the television period drama "Downton Abbey" in Highclere Castle and the village of Bampton in Oxfordshire. Making its debut on the air in 2010 and now in its fourth season, the series has been watched by around 120 million viewers worldwide, mainly in English-speaking countries, bestowing extraordinary success on its principal location. However, while at Highclere Castle tourism initiatives are not linked exclusively to the television series, in the case of Bampton the tourist image of the village is built wholly upon it. To study its impact in terms of local development, normal data collection methods were not sufficient and it proved necessary to present a questionnaire to tourists participating in one of the many one-day organized tours. The results emerging from the admittedly small sample interviewed did confirm some trends already anticipated, such as the predominance of overseas tourists with a high spending capacity, dedicating a single day to visiting the locations and spending the rest of their holiday in London.