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.     

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。     

Cyborgs in the woods

This paper makes the suggestion that the field of outdoor recreation needs to move toward recognizing human agency when constructing definitions of wilderness if it wishes to address the ecological crisis. In an attempt to show this, this paper begins with an overview of two trends in outdoor recreation - the emphasis on minimum impact wilderness techniques and the various technological innovations that have occurred in the past few years. The next section explores some consequences associated with these trends (e.g. what definition of human beings is being suggested through an emphasis on minimum impact practises? What kind of sub-textual message of nature, and hence human beings, is technology promoting?). Each of these two trends is shown to relate to each other in ways that are simultaneously conflicting, ironic and complimentary. The next section offers one critical postmodern alternative to the ontologically absolute type of knowledge often generated within the discourse of outdoor recreation. This alternative arises from embracing the creative role human agency has in defining and explaining what nature and humans are, from decentring ontologically absolute knowledge in favour of a discursively conditioned image of the cyborg, which blurs the boundaries between human/animal, human/machine, and material/non-material. The fifth section looks at some possible hopeful results of adopting cyborg imagery in outdoor recreation as a means to address the ecological crisis.     

AFRICAN AND WESTERN TOURISTS: OBJECT AUTHENTICITY QUEST?

The study draws from netnography and participant observation to compare the subjective importance of object authenticity between African and Western tourists, in their encounters with staged culture in Zimbabwe. Thus it challenges the status quo, being one of a few studies in which Africans are represented as tourists. The paper then argues that, in its object-related sense, authenticity has limited usefulness for African tourists. It is suggested that, for them, rather than authenticity, aesthetics and artistry are more meaningful criteria for evaluating cultural performances. Therefore, object authenticity is not universally relevant as a touristic quest. In contrast to African tourists, however, Western tourists were preoccupied with evaluating object authenticity and uncovering “deceit” in staged culture.     

Connecting Visitors to People and Place: Visitors’ Perceptions of Authenticity at Canyon de Chelly National Monument,Arizona

This study examines the effect of visitors’ characteristics, motivations and sense of place attachment on perceptions of authenticity at a cultural heritage site. Data were collected in summer and fall 2006 through an on-site survey questionnaire administered to a random sample of visitors to Canyon de Chelly National Monument, Arizona ( n = 379; 76% response rate). The most important motives for visiting were ‘To enjoy nature’ and ‘To experience Navajo culture’. Additionally, visitors perceived a strong sense of place identity but a weaker sense of place dependence. Preservation of the archaeological resources was the most important contributor towards an authentic experience, followed by learning about customs and values of local people, meeting local people and visiting with an authorised Navajo guide. Attending interpretive programmes contributed the least. Results show that motivation to experience Navajo culture, the place identity dimension of place attachment, educational attainment, age and past experience at the monument had significant effects on the perception of an authentic experience at the monument. Place identity emerged as the strongest predictor of perceptions of authenticity, suggesting that a strong emotional bond is an important factor in visitors perceiving a site to be authentic. As visitor motivations for learning about the Navajo culture increased, so did perceptions of authenticity. Higher age also led to increased feelings of authenticity. As education levels and prior experience increased, perceptions of authenticity decreased.     

Irreconcilable differences: Divorcing ethics from existential authenticity

This paper challenges tourism research that attempts to bring together existential authenticity and ethics. Following on from others who have revived philosophically driven investigations of authenticity, we turn to key existential thinkers to specifically assess the ethical deficit of existential phenomenology. Doing so reveals Simone de Beauvoir to be unique in her development of an existential ethics. However, this does not fully allow us to reconcile existential authenticity with ethics in the existing tourism literature, as existential philosophy tells us that unethical actions can be authentic and ethical actions can be in inauthentic. Identifying these irreconcilable differences, we argue that future research on ethics and authenticity must be more firmly grounded in the concepts of freedom, ambiguity, and intentionality.     

Historic theme parks: An Australian experience in authenticity

The potential role of historic theme parks in providing domestic tourists with an “authentic” insight into their history and culture is examined in this paper. Previous analyses of “authenticity” and its role in travel are discussed and it is argued that these analyses have not allowed for the possibility of seeking authentic insight into the past. An analysis of the advertising material of six major historic theme parks indicates that “authenticity” is actively promoted as part of the experience offered at theme parks. Evidence from studies of visitors to two Australian historic theme parks is presented illustrating that the visitors believe that authenticity is an important element of their experiences. Authenticity is also an important factor in satisfaction with their visits. This evidence, however, conflicts with the views of social scientists writing about authenticity and travel. A number of questions are raised about conceptual thinking on the topic of authenticity.     

Tourists' Perception of Authenticity in Indigenous Souvenirs in Taiwan

This study contributes to a body of knowledge concerning tourists' perception of authenticity for indigenous souvenirs in Taiwan. Researchers evaluated, designed, and produced souvenir cups chosen to represent Taiwan's indigenous Paiwan culture. Markers, designs, and materials were researched and selected in order to examine tourists' perceptions of authenticity. Tourists were asked to evaluate the cups and to explain their perceived authenticity and willingness to purchase. The findings suggest that tourists perceive modern design combined with indigenous markers to be more authentic than traditional design. The apparent traditionalism of aboriginal souvenirs does not determine the degree of authenticity. Tourists' perception is specifically grounded in the visuality of the souvenir and their willingness to purchase is also associated with authenticity in design.     

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.     

Authentic dining experiences in ethnic theme restaurants

The literature on ethnic theme restaurants has already shown that patrons of such restaurants often wish to experience authentic ethnic culture, and customer satisfaction correlates with authenticity. This study examines the relationship between importance and performance of perceptions of authentic dining experiences in ethnic theme restaurants, and attempts to verify the influence of authentic dining experiences on repurchase intention in ethnic theme restaurants. After designing questionnaire content and sampling, this study obtained 538 samples. The analytical results show that authentic dining experiences effectively indicate customer repurchase intention. This study thus concludes that to attract more customers, ethnic theme restaurants should improve their service, settings, and food to provide customers a more authentic dining experience.     

关子旅游真实牲问题的批判

自真实性引入旅游研究以来，学者们从多学科及多种意识形态来解释真实性，衍生了大量的真实性概念，但这些概念大多不在同一个逻辑层面上来探讨问题，致使真实性问题扑朔迷离。文章通过事实的、认识的、信念的三个层面来考察“真实性”，从逻辑层面上理顺并构建了从客观性真实性、相对性真实性到绝对性真实性的“真实性”体系。事实上，只有在信仰的层面上，才会有绝对的真实性，对客观性真实性和相对性真实性的讨论，在本质上是没有多大意义的，旅游者通过体验，在旅游地完成了“诗意地栖居”，仅此而言．旅游对于人类生活，功莫大焉。     

Authenticity & aura: A Benjaminian Approach to Tourism

As a dynamic concept, authenticity has ignited many debates regarding its meaning and utility, thus resulting in several theoretical perspectives (objective, constructive, postmodern, existential) with various analytical focuses, from object to experience. In light of its conceptual variability, it should be asked—What does authenticity do? This paper revisits Walter Benjamin’s notions of authenticity and aura; ideas introduced by MacCannell and worthy of further consideration. Similar to its development in tourism studies, Benjamin’s theorizations of the concept are complex and relational—authenticity is established through ritual and tradition and is connected to aura. They are mutually constitutive and simultaneously products of other phenomena. As it bridges analytical perspectives, his work offers a useful addition to the authenticity discourse.     

Authenticity and place attachment of major visitor attractions

This paper aims to explore the relationships between place attachment and perceived authenticity of major visitor attractions. The empirical study was conducted with a sample of international tourists to major visitor attractions in two capital cities, Helsinki, Finland and Jerusalem, Israel. The results indicate a positive correlation between place attachment and authenticity. Major visitor attractions located in places with considerable heritage experience value are considered more authentic, and that authenticity of visitor attractions is influenced by place attachment moderated by iconicity and heritage value of the destination region. These findings provide insight to the ways tourists perceive authenticity of visitor attractions and highlight the importance of the heritage value of tourism destinations for strategic planning and marketing purposes.     

Both Sides Now: Transgression and Oppression in African Americans' Historical Relationships with Nature

ABSTRACT

Wilderness has been constructed as White, in part through histories that marginalize African American attitudes and experiences. In response, we provide an overview of African Americans' relationships with nature during three historical periods: (a) Enslavement, (b) Reconstruction and Postreconstruction, and (c) 1936–1994. African Americans' relationships with nature were created through an ongoing dialectic of oppression and transgression throughout each historical period. Four types of transgression were identified: wilderness as a space free of White oppression, wilderness as a site to challenge White oppression, engagement with nature despite White oppression, and advocacy for more just relationships with wilderness. Transgression is discussed as a means to remember environmental history and envision new relationships between African Americans and wilderness in the present, bonds for which transgression may one day no longer be necessary.     

‘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.     

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.     

Looking for something real: Affective encounters

This paper recounts a “Roots” tour of Ghana that took place in 2014. Roots tours are African tours specifically marketed toward African-American travelers. Tours include stops associated with the trans-Atlantic slave trade as well as sites of a more general cultural interest. The paper focuses on the encounters of tourists with Ghana. Specifically, this study uses Benjamin's concept of auras of authenticity to demonstrate that the authentic and affective are inextricably coupled and that both perform as essential constituents in place and memory making. This work relies on readings and interpretations of travelers' aspects (emotional expressions) as well as their sentiments as expressed in their speech and their writings. These manifestations of affect are captured through participant observation, interviews, photographs, and autoethnography. The findings of this study suggest that experiences of authenticity along with affective materials and landscapes work to bind memory to moment and place.     

What are wilderness areas for? Tourism and political ecologies of wilderness uses and management in the Anthropocene

ABSTRACT

In global imaginaries, wilderness areas are considered to represent the last parts of “original” nature, untouched by civilization and modernization. In most cases, this is misleading as wilderness environments have been exploited, explored and also converted into administrative units in various protected area networks. Indeed, most wilderness areas have been a part of human–environment interactions for a long time and they have been influenced and modified in that interaction. As a result, wilderness is constitutively a cultural and politically loaded idea. While the Western notion of wilderness as a place where “man himself is a visitor who doesn't remain” represents the global hegemonic conservation thinking, it does not necessarily work with different local realities, meanings and use values of “the wild”. In addition, in recent decades, the tourism industry has placed an increasing interest on nature-based and adventure tourism products creating new kinds of ideas and use needs for the remaining wilderness environments. This paper analyzes empirically how wilderness environments and their roles are seen in the context of new and traditional anthropogenic uses and meanings of wilderness areas. More specifically, the paper uses a political ecology approach to evaluate the use and management priorities in the Finnish Wilderness system.     

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.