| Abstract: We provide causal evidence on the impact of entertainment media on tourism inflow and, in turn, on expenditure. Our identification strategy is based on a difference-in-differences exploiting: a) the staggered release of an Italian TV-series, Inspector Montalbano, in different countries; b) the difference between municipalities where the series was staged compared to other municipalities in the same Italian region (Sicily). We leverage a rich dataset which we built by linking municipal-level data on tourism inflows and expenditure from a representative survey (Bank of Italy) as well as on tourism inflows from a travel review platform (Tripadvisor). We document a positive and significant impact on tourism inflow and tourism expenditure from origin countries after the TV-series release in treated municipalities compared to control municipalities. We also provide evidence of positive spillover effects in neighbouring municipalities. |
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