Session 5: Authenticity

1
Session 5 Authenticity Modernity

• Karina M. Smed

2
Agenda 10-5-2006

• Authenticity in a social context
• Perceptions of authenticity in tourism
• The tourist search changed perceptions
• Case (?)

3
Authenticity, modernity and tourism

• Authenticity vs. modernity
• Tourism a method of investigating modern
  society
• The tourist an available model for
  investigating modern man
• In tourism, the modern search for authenticity
  becomes most evident

4
Modernity and the tourist search (according to
MacCannell)

• Reality is found in pre-modern society
• A constant search for the absolute other

5
Understanding the tourist search

• Pseudo-events (Boorstin)
• Expectations of the inauthentic
• Satisfaction in inauthentic experiences
• Authentic ideal
• Social construction (Cohen)
• Commoditisation staged authenticity obstacle
  for authenticity
• Consensus cannot be assumed springs from social
  context critique of Boorstin MacCannell
• Commoditisation does not destroy authentic
  experiences

6
He the tourist has come to expect both more
strangeness and more familiarity than the world
naturally offers. He has come to believe that he
can have a lifetime of adventure in two weeks and
all the thrills of risking his life without any
real risk at all"(Boorstin, 196479-80)

• The tourist seldom likes the authentic (to him
  often unintelligible) product of the foreign
  culture he prefers his own provincial
  expectations (p.106)
• All tourists desire this deeper involvement with
  society and culture to some degree it is a basic
  component of their motivation to travel (p.10)

7

• authenticity is a socially constructed concept
  and its social () connotation is, therefore, not
  given, but negotiable (p. 374)

8
Authenticity in tourism according to

• MacCannell counterrelationship to modern society
  search for the absolut other
• Boorstin pseudo-events tourism excludes
  authentic experiences
• Cohen socially conditioned, which makes
  authentic experiences possible emergent
  authenticity

9
(No Transcript)
10
The post-tourist

• Conscious of inauthenticity
• Deliberately acts out
• Search for pseudo world
• A very enlightened consumer

11
Front/back dichotomy

• Front region
• Touristic front region
• Front simulating back region
• Back region open to outsiders
• Back region slightly altered for tourists
• Back region

12
Revising authenticity

• Ambiguous uses
• Original use too simple for tourism experiences
• Tourist motivation is more complex than just a
  search for authenticity in its present form

13
Authenticity in tourism from two perspectives

• Experiences
• Objects (toured objects)

14
According to Wang (1999)

• objectivism gt objective authenticity
• constructivism gt constructivist/symbolic
  authenticity
• Postmodernism gt existential authenticity

15
Three approaches

• Objectivist Boorstin, MacCannell
• Contructivist Cohen
• Postmodernist Wang

16
Three types of authenticity

• Objective
• Experience is authentic when toured object is
• Constructive
• Experience is authentic if the tourist sees the
  toured object as such
• Existential
• Experience is authentic when a state of being is
  activated

17
Existential authenticity denotes a special state
of Being in which one is true to oneself, and
acts as a counterdose to the loss of true self
in public roles and public spheres in modern
Western society (Berger, p.358)
18
Authenticity ideal

• Opposite everyday life in modern society
• Nostalgic, romantic

19
Conclusions

• Existential authenticity promotes authentic
  experiences also when toured objects are
  inauthentic
• Search for an authentic self makes the
  authenticity in toured objects irrelevant
• New foundation for the search for authenticity as
  the fundamental motivational factor for travelling

20
What would you like to experience while on
vacation?

• Expressions of existentially authentic
  experiences
• sitting peacefully watching the ocean thinking
  about life
• being together with family
• Expressions of objectively authentic experiences
• visiting museums and galleries
• attending a good concert or play

21
Case Las Disney

• How would you compare Disneyland and Las Vegas as
  tourist attractions?
• Then consider authenticity, front/back regions,
  tourists search in relation to each attraction