Negotiating authenticity: Cathar heritage tourism

This paper explores the negotiation of authenticity with the case of Cathar heritage tourism in southern France. Also known as the Albigensians, the Cathars were a medieval sect practicing in the Languedoc Region of southern France from the tenth to the fourteenth century. Cathar heritage tourism is based upon various museums, heritage centers, castles, and seasonal trading fairs or markets supplemented by the activities of Cathar re-enactment or ‘living history’ societies. This interest in Cathar heritage has led to a highly saturated calendar of events. In 2010, for example, the total number of all varieties of these events in France was 36, with over 4000 people actively participating and the events attracting upwards of about 3 million visitors annually.

Based on a case-study approach, the geographical breadth of Cathar heritage tourism in France is outlined, giving brief case studies of each of the main types of tourist experiences. This is followed with a discussion on how notions of authenticity and commodification are constructed by key participants through the staging of particular types of Cathar heritage tourism.     

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.     

Culinary tourism as living history: staging,tourist performance and perceptions of authenticity in a Thai cooking school

This study examined how a cooking school in Thailand acted as a site of living history in its staging and touristic experience of authenticity. The cooking school was one of the oldest, most visited and most comprehensively “staged” cooking schools in Bangkok. Research focused on understanding: (a) the nature of spatial and temporal staging of authenticity in the school, (b) tourists’ perceptions of authenticity and (c) parallels between the cooking school and living heritage sites. Findings showed that the cooking school was carefully designed to transport tourists from the heterogeneous tourist spaces of present-day Bangkok to the idealized, enclavic space of an imagined Thai culinary past. Tourists took on multiple roles, had rich sensory experiences, felt a sense of play and space–time transcendence, and revelled in close social relations with hosts and other tourists. These factors allowed them to experience multiple forms of both modernist and post-modernist authenticity. In its scenography, interpretative performance, narrative and rituals, the cooking school did indeed resemble a living history site. However, the school made no particular claim to expertise in Thai history, place or culinary culture, and tended more towards touristic entertainment, and less towards accurate historical and cultural visitor education.     

Food,place and authenticity: local food and the sustainable tourism experience

In recent years, attempts to improve the economic and environmental sustainability of both tourism and agriculture have been linked to the development of “alternative” food networks and a renewed enthusiasm for food products that are perceived to be traditional and local. This paper draws on research from two UK regions, the Lake District and Exmoor, to argue that local food can play an important role in the sustainable tourism experience because it appeals to the visitor's desire for authenticity within the holiday experience. Using evidence from qualitative interviews with tourists and food producers, the paper records ways in which local foods are conceptualised as “authentic” products that symbolise the place and culture of the destination. By engaging with debates surrounding the meaning of locality and authenticity, the paper challenges existing understandings of these concepts and offers a new way forward for tourism research by arguing that “local food” has the potential to enhance the visitor experience by connecting consumers to the region and its perceived culture and heritage.     

Vernacular house as an attraction: illustration from hutong tourism in Beijing

This paper discusses the recent experiences of vernacular house tourism in China, based on a case study of hutong tourism in Beijing. It is argued that the vernacular house could be an important cultural resource for tourism development. The theoretical implications of vernacular house tourism are examined. It is suggested that vernacular house tourism helps to communicate local cultural identity to visitors, to reduce the negative impact of modernization upon local traditions and traditional styles of houses, and to satisfy tourists' demands for greater authenticity. However, vernacular house tourism is a highly fragile type of tourism. If it is to be sustained, sound and careful planning and management is needed.     

Knowledge transfer processes in the authenticity of the intangible cultural heritage in tourism destination competitiveness

ABSTRACT

As tourism based on intangible cultural heritage usually encompasses a knowledge transfer process, the authenticity of the heritage (or its perception) can be affected by knowledge transfer. These knowledge transfers occur to present the heritage to the tourists (courses, tour guiding, etc.), but also in the destination itself when the heritage knowledge is codified in museums, tour guides are trained, or the heritage is transferred to newer generations. These situations present potential challenges where authenticity is distorted or even lost, and it affects the competitiveness of the destination. The work attempts to analyse those knowledge transfers and their challenges regarding authenticity to sustain the competitiveness of the destination.     

In search of authenticity: a case examination of the transformation of Alabama's Langdale Cotton Mill into an industrial heritage tourism attraction

Difficult economic conditions, competition, or the decline of once thriving industries have inflicted serious damage to rural areas in many parts of the world. The USA has not been immune to these events, and the current economic climate has only exacerbated the existing problems. Apart from the industries and businesses that were forced to close their operations, former employees, their families, and even their communities are left behind with little hope of recovery. Some affected communities turn to other means to alleviate economic distress. In fact, while not a panacea to solve existing problems, some communities are considering or have even implemented tourism-related projects in an attempt to revive themselves and their surroundings. The present study explores the current development of one such project, the Langdale Mill in Valley, Alabama. To collect information about this proposed industrial heritage site, face-to-face interviews with the mill's project management were conducted. The interviews identified funding as the most critical challenge. Despite this serious problem, the mill's management is implementing alternative strategies in search for opportunities to revive a former industrial site and create tangible benefits for the local community. These findings may have important implications for other communities that also face decline.     

The role of authenticity in forming slow tourists' intentions: Developing an extended model of goal-directed behavior

Despite the rapid growth in the slow tourism industry, research on slow tourists' behavior is rare. This study develops an extended model of goal-directed behavior to more comprehensively explain the formation of tourists' intentions to visit a slow tourism destination. Specifically, the extended model incorporates the critical constructs (i.e., perception of authenticity, knowledge, and information search behavior) into the original model of goal-directed behavior (MGB). The results of an on-site survey (N = 387) revealed that the model provides a satisfactory fit with the data and explains greater amounts of variance in behavioral intention. Three authenticity-related variables formed positive and significant causal relationships with the constructs in the extended model of goal-directed behavior. All the constructs in the original MGB were significant predictors of both desire and intention. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.     

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.     

Farming and tourism enterprise: Experiential authenticity in the diversification of independent small-scale family farming

This article examines the business choices made by independent farming families, when confronting the need to diversify away from traditional agricultural activities by starting farm-based tourism businesses. Based on interviews with farm family members who have set up tourism attractions on their farms, and drawing upon the concept of experiential authenticity, the article explores their self-conceptions of their family identities. In so doing, it addresses the choices and dilemmas facing farm families who attempt diversification through the tourism attraction route, and considers how this affects their attitudes towards more traditional farming activities. Using qualitative case study data, an empirically grounded framework is proposed that expresses the choices and challenges facing tourism entrepreneurial family farm members in the UK, through the conceptual lens of experiential authenticity.     

Development of intangible cultural heritage as a sustainable tourism resource: the intangible cultural heritage practitioners’ perspectives

ABSTRACT

Authentic intangible cultural heritage (ICH) provides a community with a unique selling point in the globally competitive tourism industry. The process of commodification of ICH, however, has threatened its authenticity and thus sustainable tourism approaches are required to achieve successful transmission and promotion of ICH as a sustainable tourism resource. This paper explores the priorities of ICH practitioners in relation to the development of ICH as a sustainable tourism resource, by utilising South Korea as a case study. The results revealed that from the ICH practitioners’ perspectives, authenticity is a holistic notion integrating the transmitted customs, inherited meanings and the practitioners’ identities. ICH practitioners agree with the potential positive symbiotic relationship between transmission of authentic ICH and promotion of ICH as a tourism resource. To achieve the positive symbiotic relationship, locals’ awareness of ICH, ICH practitioner empowerment and parallel development between tourism development and transmission of ICH are necessary. To date, the practitioner approach to the authenticity of ICH and ICH as a sustainable tourism resource is little explored in the literature, thus this paper makes a valuable addition to the area of sustainable heritage tourism.     

WWOOFing in Australia: ideas and lessons for a de-commodified sustainability tourism

This paper considers Willing Workers on Organic Farms (WWOOFing) as a form of sustainable tourism with particular focus on its social and cultural dimensions and the means by which deep engagement in these appear to lead participants to a better awareness or understanding of ecological sustainability issues. It draws upon a grounded theory-based exploration of the perspectives and interactions of WWOOFers and WWOOF hosts in Australia, using 323 formal written surveys of hosts and 188 surveys of WWOOFers, together with 16 in-depth unstructured WWOOFer interviews, which collectively enhances understanding of WWOOFing as an emerging, unique and valuable form of sustainable tourism. By virtue of the highly engaged and symbiotic basis of the exchange involved, WWOOFing is commonly perceived to facilitate a transcendence of the role of tourist. The research indicates this is the product of a unique relationship forged in the WWOOFing context, which differs markedly to relationships forged in more typical fee-for-service tourism contexts in which there is a different relationship at play between power, authenticity and sustainability. This relationship is outlined in order to articulate the notion that WWOOFing represents a type of “sustainability tourism” that is unexplored in the sustainable tourism literature.     

边境旅游研究进展与启示——以SSCI论文为例

边境旅游是促进区域一体化发展和强化跨境旅游合作的主要手段,深入分析国际边境旅游研究脉络与研究热点,对促进富民兴边、睦邻安邦及对接国际国内旅游“双循环”具有重要借鉴意义。本文以1995—2021年发表的1 124篇SSCI英文文献为基础,对边境旅游研究领域的时间分布、关键词突现、聚类特征等进行可视化分析。研究发现,英文文献中对边境旅游的研究可分为起步阶段、发展阶段与创新阶段;主要研究议题包括边境旅游吸引物、边境旅游影响、边境旅游安全及跨境旅游合作;边境旅游研究趋势发生两大转变,一是研究视角从单一向多元转向,二是理论探索从功能说向效应说深入。建议国内对边境旅游的研究应结合国家战略拓展边境旅游研究议题,强调中国边境旅游特色的同时贡献“中国智慧”。     

Evolution of tourism in the Scottish highlands

The evolution of the tourist industry of the Scottish highlands is discussed from the early eighteenth century until the beginning of the nineteenth century. Five stages of development are identified, which reflect the social, economic and technological changes occuring in Britain during those periods. The importance of fashion and taste and transportation improvements are given special emphasis. The early pattern of development of infrastructure structure and land use has significantly influenced the present characteristics of the tourist industry in the area.     

Battlefield sites as dark tourism attractions: an analysis of experience

There has been much discussion by scholars about the efficacy of the term ‘dark tourism’ with a call to move from a theoretical to a more evidence-based approach to research. Recent analyses of dark heritage sites have shown that research has yet to engage fully with the experiences of tourists at dark sites. This paper seeks to meet this challenge by providing more evidence of the actual experiences of tourists at those sites which are conceptually identified as ‘dark’ using the particular example of battlefields in the UK. Based on a wide-ranging survey of battlefield sites the study used a blend of quantitative and qualitative methods to determine the nature of tourist experience. Central to this was a content analysis of visitor comments and vocabulary used to describe the sites. The results showed that visitors had a wide range of experiences but there was no evidence of a considered appreciation of the sites’ ‘darker’ aspects. Visitor experience here is casual and dominated by a lighter set of values. This is affected by the commercial nature of the sites which supports the assertion that thanatopsis is a rare feature of tourist visits.     

Implementing sustainable tourism in Scotland: an interview

In China, sites categorised as UNESCO World Heritage Sites are commonly used as a means of economic regeneration through tourism development. This study is of a recent addition to the list, the diaolou (fortified tower houses) of Kaiping, Guangdong, in South China. This rural zone, characterised by past emigration and farming, is in the early stages of tourism development. The study, based on interviews and a survey, permits findings to be compared with other rural areas in China such as Hungcun and the Tangyue Arches of Bao Village in Anhui, and thus while similarities in attitudes are found, in Kaiping differences exist whereby tourism has been found to permit entrepreneurial activities while retaining an agricultural base as the “new tourism rich” employ others to continue farming. The work is contextualised within a model of evolving literature related to tourism impacts on communities. The paper explores a range of issues in sustainable tourism, including the use of tourism as a tool for social, economic and cultural development, holistic approaches to heritage tourism, and the development of glocalisation as a response to globalisation. It discusses differences in approach to heritage tourism, cultural change and commodification between western and Chinese scholars and society.     

‘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.     

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.     

Politics, policy and regional tourism administration: a case examination of Scottish area tourist board funding

The issue of Area Tourist Board (ATB) funding in Scotland has been of growing importance since 1996, when the Government empowered a reduction in the number of such Boards from 32 to 14. While much of the controversy surrounding this reduction in the number of Boards has centred on issues of the discharge of responsibilities, questions of ATB funding have recently been brought to the fore because of financial difficulties faced by several ATBs. This paper explores questions of ATB funding, beginning with an overview of Scotland's tourism administrative structure before proceeding to examine perceived difficulties with the role, structure and funding arrangements for the ATBs in the context of current debates to resolve these. With the ultimate objective of evaluating the most commonly propounded resolutions to the ATB funding problem, the paper describes and analyses opportunities for, and obstacles to long-term change, conluding that a possible palliative is a centralized funding mechanism tempered by safeguards to local accountability and the delivery of tourism services.