Elucidating the relationships among destination images,recreation experience,and authenticity of the Shengxing Heritage Recreation Area in Taiwan

A destination's image and on-site recreation experience can be regarded as precedents of the authenticity perceived by heritage tourists. Historic images attract tourists to experience the authenticity of a heritage destination. This study examines the linear relationships among destination images, recreation experience, and the perceived authenticity experienced by tourists at the Shengxing Heritage Recreation Area in central Taiwan. In total, 536 usable questionnaires were collected. Analytical results indicate that the cognitive and affective images of a destination directly and significantly affect the recreation experience of tourists at a heritage recreation area. Additionally, recreation experience directly and significantly affects perceived authenticity. Moreover, recreation experience has a significant mediating effect on the relationship between cognitive image and perceived authenticity. We conclude that when tourists visit a heritage-based tourism destination, such as the destination under consideration, these tourists gain tourism image and recreation experiences, which strengthens their perceived authenticity of heritage tourism; as a result, these tourists are more likely to contribute to the development of heritage tourism. Applying this theoretical framework to research on heritage tourism further extends our understanding of the behavioural model of heritage tourists. Finally, this study provides a valuable reference for managers striving to develop heritage tourism.     

‘The smell of death and the smell of life’: authenticity,anxiety and perceptions of death at Varanasi’s cremation grounds

ABSTRACT

This paper contributes to an understanding of existential authenticity and existential anxiety in tourism studies through an investigation of tourists’ perceptions of death, the Self, and ‘others’ at the Hindu cremation grounds in Varanasi, India. Encounters with death at dark tourism sites serve as reminders of one’s own mortality affecting one’s attitude towards death, perception of self, and even challenging one’s personal values. Existentialists assert that anxiety is a condition of existential authenticity, and therefore moments of the existentially authentic experience are not always pleasurable. This paper argues that confrontation with death, as exemplified by the Aghori rituals and the cremation grounds in Varanasi, offers tourists an opportunity to examine the inevitability that life will end and to engage with this existential predicament and anxiety in an embodied sense, thereby pushing some of them towards life changes in the pursuit of existential authenticity.     

回望“真实性”(authenticity)(上)——一个旅游研究的热点

麦坎内尔(MacCannell)掀起的"真实性"研究热已逾30年,其间,研究视角逐渐从"客观"转向"主观"。这既反映出真实性内涵的延展与变迁,亦凸显旅游主体—游客体验的重要性。然而,就研究者日渐褊狭的视域来看,旅游客体真实性对旅游体验真实性的影响从松散到几近断裂,旅游主体甚至以"悦纳万物"的信仰姿态视一切"存在"为真,从而收获真实的体验。客观真实与主观真实,究竟是谁决定或影响了谁?对此问题的探寻导致学界对旅游客体之"虚假"的重新界定和对旅游体验之"真实"的再度好奇,并因此形成旅游真实性研究的纷争局面。有鉴于此,对国内外真实性研究做一番缘起、视角、界定等方面的梳理和反思,或将对国内相关研究与应用有所裨益。     

Experiencing the real village – a netnographic examination of perceived authenticity in rural tourism consumption

There is an upsurge of research interest regarding authenticity in contemporary tourism consumption as modern tourists have been found to prefer involve in real backstage experiences to participating in pseudo-events and mass congregations. This paper presents a netnographic analysis of tourists’ reviews on village destinations and explores how authenticity is experienced by tourists in a village setting and the indicators pertaining to it. Trip Advisor reviews of three Indian villages were downloaded and analysed. Findings reveal that tourists consider authenticity as a critical factor in rural village experience. The indicators of rural authentic experience and their implications are also highlighted.     

Negotiating authenticity: Three modernities

Post-postmodern authenticity is introduced and used in this conceptual article to characterise a new and emergent approach to negotiating reality and fantasy by tourists through tourism. Alongside modern and postmodern approaches, post-postmodern authenticity contextualises recent developments within authenticity discourse. Modernism involves constructive, objective and verisimilitude stances for negotiating authenticity and inauthenticity, including by tourists through tourism. Postmodernism takes more deconstructive, subjective and hyperreal stances. Post-postmodernism meanwhile, implies reconstructive, performative, and as this article is the first to conceptualise, alterreal stances. The three orientations towards authenticity interact and react off of each other. Unable to address the paradoxes of negotiating reality alone, together, they provide a contextual, extended and holistic conceptualisation of complex authenticity.     

Deconstructing the internal structure of perceived authenticity for heritage tourism

Abstract

Although modern society is more inclined to view authenticity from a postmodernist perspective, few quantitative studies on heritage tourism explored existential authenticity in detail. This study deconstructs authenticity into three components – object-related, intra-personal, and inter-personal – and then constructs a complete model by exploring each component’s internal structures, asking to what extent travel motivation is an antecedent and loyalty, a consequence. Data were obtained from 1,088 valid survey questionnaires distributed in Pingxi, Taiwan. Study findings confirmed the reliability and validity of the items used to measure the construct of authenticity. Regarding the internal structure of authenticity, intra-personal authenticity plays a mediating role between object-related authenticity and inter-personal authenticity, and this inter-personal authenticity may be the final value that tourists perceive. Compared with recent related studies, this model more comprehensively explains the degree of variation in loyalty, reflecting its importance for heritage tourism management and marketing. If a destination remains authentic, tourists are willing make a return visit. Authenticity may enable tourism managers to strike a balance between preservation and development when achieving the long-term goal of sustainable development.     

Authenticating Ethnic Tourism: Li Dancers' Perspectives

Authenticity is a negotiated rather than an absolute attribute of tourism phenomena. A large number of stakeholders is involved in the negotiation of authenticity, including the state, the business community, tourists and, in the case of ethnicity, representatives of minority groups. Each of these is likely to hold its own perspectives on authenticity. This presentation focuses upon the latter group and examines the perceptions of tourism and culture of Li dancers who perform for tourists in purpose-built folk villages in the island of Hainan, China. In order to structure perspectives on authenticity, survey responses of Li dancers are arrayed upon five constructs that can be viewed as representing different dimensions of the authentic. These constructs are: commodification versus spontaneity (non-commercialization), cultural evolution versus museumification, economic development versus cultural preservation, ethnic autonomy versus state regulation, and mass tourism development versus sustainable cultural tourism. It is demonstrated that there is tension both within and between each of these constructs. Furthermore, the perspectives of Li dancers on tourism and culture are formulated and reformulated within the context of the perspectives of other stakeholders who may hold different positions related to authenticity.     

‘Through the magic of authentic reproduction’: tourists’ perceptions of authenticity in a pioneer village

As a concept, authenticity is widely debated across tourism studies and theoretically approached from numerous perspectives. This mixed-method qualitative study utilizes a constructivist framework for examining tourists' motivations, perceptions of authenticity and landscape experience in a self-proclaimed ‘authentic reproduction’ pioneer community. Spring Mill Pioneer Village is the original location of the former village; however, as a heritage landscape, it is composed of restorations, reproductions, and replicas of nineteenth-century structures. Thus, it is an appropriate case study for the examination of tourists' perceptions of authenticity. Moreover, tourists note authenticity as a motivating factor in their decision to visit the village, yet they define the concept in numerous ways. As a result, tourists’ pioneer community experience is governed by more than their perceptions of authenticity, but engages the village landscape, active atmosphere and their own imaginations.     

Tourism: A catalyst for existential authenticity

In studies of the relationship between existential authenticity and tourism, it has been postulated that tourism offers a temporary release from the inauthenticity of everyday life. This paper argues that this portrayal of the role of tourism neglects the promise and potential of tourism to act not simply as a substitute, but as a catalyst, for existential authenticity. The paper draws on Heideggerian phenomenology and Sartrean existentialism to reveal the role played by tourism in prompting the adoption of an authentic attitude. A parallel is drawn between tourism and Heidegger’s Spielraum, which offers a reflective space to consider life choices and to prompt change, if necessary, upon tourists’ return home.     

Copysites / duplitectures as tourist attractions: An exploratory study on experiences of Chinese tourists at replicas of foreign architectural landmarks in China

This study aims to clarify the position of duplitectures/copysites in the theoretical stream of tourism authenticity. It does so by exploring the meanings assigned by domestic Chinese tourists, based on their socially and culturally held beliefs, while they interact with architectural imitations imported from alien cultures. The primary research method is an emergent qualitative design that involved in-depth interviews of Chinese tourists at the eight copysites considered in this study. The findings reveal three relevant themes. Reconceptualization of authenticity indicates that the concept of imitation has very different connotations in China compared to those in the West. Cultural self-exploration reflects an evolving stage of intercultural maturity manifested by Chinese tourists. De-globalization has led to cultural homogenization of the tourist spaces in China. The findings fill the lacuna in existing theoretical streams of tourism authenticity by clarifying the position of copysites and has practical implications for domestic tourism marketing organizations in China.     

文化实践中非物质文化遗产的真实性:径山茶宴的再发明

文章通过对一名茶僧参与策划径山茶宴全过程的民族志研究,采用参与观察和深入访谈的研究方法,讨论和反思旅游文化背景下非物质文化遗产的再发明问题。文章从旅游文化和"真实性"的概念出发,讨论旅游研究领域对"光环"研究的缺失,提出关注文化实践中对光环的利用存在的问题,进一步探讨径山茶宴再发明过程中"谁需要真实性以及为什么"以及"如何使用真实性"两个核心问题,以期补充现有真实性讨论的局限性。笔者认为,遗产旅游文化是文化市场化的结果,具备其真实性,而遗产的光环促进着地方文化品牌的推广,径山茶宴在旅游发展背景下的遗产化过程呼吁我们反思非物质文化遗产认证存在的批量化、标准化以及文化多元性等问题。     

Exploring cultural tourist towns: Does authenticity matter?

This study applies various conceptualisations of authenticity to explore to what extent tourists appreciate the authenticity of cultural tourist towns. Using the visitor-employed photography (VEP) method, this study collected visitor-employed data in two cultural tourist towns in Shanghai, China to analyse tourists' personal enjoyable aesthetic experience. Results show that tourists were not overly concerned about objective authenticity as long as they had a positive and enjoyable experience, and that some tourists experienced and favoured existential and postmodern authenticity in the tourist towns. Results highlight the importance of designing entertainment activities and iconic attractions in a strip shape to engage tourists and enhance their enjoyment. Overall, results suggest that sophisticated design characterised by interaction of four townscape factors – nature setting, emotional design, spatial configuration, and commercialised elements – can shape tourists' enjoyable authentic experience. Findings have implications for tourism and tourist attraction operators in their planning, design, conservation, and promotional efforts.     

The Batek's dilemma on indigenous tourism

This article explains how a rainforest tribe in Malaysia negotiates their indigeneity, shaped on the one hand by global imaginaries held by tourists, and on the other hand by their quest for development and modernity. The Batek are traditionally hunter-gatherers and practice semi-nomadism. They face a dilemma on how to best maintain their agency while remaining ‘authentic’ and attractive to tourists. This paper builds on Bruner's (2005) argument that cultures and indigeneity evolve with modernity, and discusses the contemporary meanings of authenticity from the perspective of the indigenes. A conceptual model to understand the ‘authenticity gap’ in indigenous tourism is offered as we suggest ways in which tourism development may be harnessed, rather than rejected, to resolve this cultural dilemma.     

Authenticity orientation as an attitude: Scale construction and validation

This study developed an authenticity orientation scale to measure the attitudes of tourists toward object-based authenticity of cultural and historic artifacts, attractions, and tourist sites. The attitudes underlying the scale have been described in authenticity literature as a continuum of attitude orientations ranging from predominantly realist to constructivist to postmodernist. To numerically distinguish tourists with respect to their attitudes, the researchers employ Thurstone's method of equally appearing intervals (Thurstone, L.L. 1928. Attitudes can be measured. The American Journal of Sociology, 26, 249–269) with subsequent validation. The newly developed scale has undergone rigorous construction and testing procedure. Its predictive validity was ensured through hypothesis testing using an online survey with a panel of 514 American tourists. The theoretical significance of the study lies in understanding the mechanism of “authentication” of various artifacts, attractions, and tourist sites by visitors. Implications for tourism management and directions for further research are discussed.     

Enhancing celebrity fan-destination relationship in film-induced tourism: The effect of authenticity

Academics and practitioners have focused on the importance of film-induced tourism for destination marketing. Although the relationship between authenticity and destination loyalty has been evidenced, few studies have explored the psychological mechanism through which authenticity influences destination loyalty. The present study fills the research gap by considering the role of celebrity attachment. The statistical analyses conducted in this study included confirmatory factor analysis, correlation analysis, structural equation modeling, mediation analysis, and bootstrapping analysis. Data from 354 purposeful film tourists revealed that constructivist authenticity had a positive effect on existential authenticity but no direct influence on destination loyalty. Existential authenticity had a direct influence on destination loyalty. Celebrity attachment mediated the influences of constructivist and existential authenticity on destination loyalty. Therefore, celebrity attachment is a crucial mediator between authenticity and film destination choices for purposeful film tourists. Finally, existential authenticity had a stronger influence on destination loyalty than did constructivist authenticity.     

国外黑色旅游研究综述

黑色旅游是近年来国外,特别是欧美地区旅游学界新兴的热点研究领域,也是一个颇具争议的领域.文章对国外有关黑色旅游的文献进行梳理,认为黑色旅游的概念界定、黑色旅游者行为特征、黑色旅游展示和历史原真性的争议、黑色旅游的影响是国外黑色旅游研究的4大主题,并对每一个主题进行了总结.     

Not such smart tourism? The concept of e-lienation

The concept of alienation was adapted to tourism by MacCannell who identified it as a key feature of modernity and a strong driver of tourism where tourists seek to reconnect to authentic places and selves. Meanwhile the post-modern world has witnessed a revolution in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) especially in the realm of smart tourism where its advocates talk eagerly of the internet of everything. Such a totalising prospect demands serious review and this article fills a critical gap by conceptualising the idea of e-lienation as a specific form of alienation in ICT-enabled tourism. It combines philosophic questions of meaning, sociological theory and empirical research to demonstrate the meanings of e-lienation, its dimensions, causes, consequences and strategies of resistance.     

Tourism-in-literature: Existential comfort,confrontation and catastrophe in Guy De Maupassant's short stories

This paper sets out the tourism-in-literature research approach and applies to the intersection between existentialism and tourism. Illustrated is the value of reading works of literature as a means of enriching theoretical understanding within tourism studies. Reviewing selected short stories of the 19th Century French writer Guy De Maupassant, themes of existential alienation, avoidance and authenticity arise in tales involving travel. Through the unexpected events and encounters tourism allows, comforting or confrontational experiences are had by protagonists. However catastrophic developments are also catalysed. De Maupassant's writing shows a sophisticated understanding of the possibilities of travel, including an awareness of the darker and unpredictable possibilities of tourism. Complemented is a more nuanced understanding of the relationship between existentialism and tourism.     

Back to the past: a sub-segment of Generation Y's perceptions of authenticity

To date, authenticity conceptualizations have taken into account the views of both suppliers and tourists. However, most studies, at the a priori stage, have not taken a market segment perspective but considered tourists to be a homogeneous population. This study challenges that by focusing on a distinct market segment based on age and life experience: Generation Y, drawing out an a priori-based sub-segment of Generation Y's perspectives of authenticity. It investigates if authenticity ideologies influence decisions to become a heritage tourist. Additionally, it determines other factors that predict differences between a heritage tourist and a non-heritage tourist. The study unveils interesting findings. With the exception of the objectivist and negotiation stance, other authenticity ideologies fail to inspire this generation to be heritage tourists. Intervention factors such as party size (and with it a social experience) and ethnicity prove to be better predictors of heritage preference. The results offer important implications for the heritage industry. For instance, “time travel” demand based on purely objective or negotiated versions can help promote conservation efforts and the sustainable development of heritage. This can lead to enhanced opportunities for partnership between the tourism industry and cultural/heritage site managers, and help revive discontinued or forgotten traditions.