Plaatsen van verbeelding: een etnografie van de tv-detective tour

This article considers the phenomenon of the television detective tour: a guided tour of various locations known from popular television detective series. The main question is how the increasing popularity of such tours can be explained. It is suggested that the locations involved offer a material reference for what is in fact immaterial imagination. By singling out and visiting these locations it becomes possible for tourists to make a symbolic distinction between the cultural categories 'reality' and 'imagination'. To give this process a name a new concept is introduced: lieux d'imagination . This concept is grounded and developed on the basis of an ethnographic analysis of three popular television detective tours: the 'Inspector Morse Tour' in Oxford the 'Baantjer Tour' in Amsterdam and the 'Wallander Tour' in Ystad. A total of 34 interviews were held with employees of tourist agencies with guides local inhabitants and tourists. Furthermore participants of the tours were observed. The analysis of the interview transcripts and observation reports shows that lieux d'imagination are the result of a complex process of negotiations and appropriation