Title of Paper

EXISTENTIAL AUTHENTICITY IN FOUR TOURISTIC SITUATIONS: A Case of Original and Reproduced Cultural Attractions

Author Bios (50 Words for each Author)

Svetlana Stepchenkova is Associate Professor at the University of Florida. Her research interests are destination marketing, branding, and positive image building. She studies tourist behavior and the effectiveness of destination promotion efforts in situations of strained bilateral relations between nations. Her current interest includes authenticity and authentication process of tourist attractions in cross-cultural settings.

Hany Kim, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Tourism and Convention at Pusan National University. Her research interests include travel marketing and behavior. She is currently focused on also interested in usability of user-generated content for managerial decision-making and marketing destination branding and cross-cultural issues in user generated media.

Seonjin Lee is a graduate student in the Department of Tourism and Convention at the Pusan National University. His research interests include sustainable destination management and marketing, spatiotemporal data analysis, tourism crisis management and destination community resilience, and tourism experience and tourist behavior.

Abstract (150 Words)

This study aims to extend understanding of the complex and heterogeneous nature of tourists’ authenticity perception and its impact on the tourism experience and desire to re-experience and provide a positive word of mouth. We adopted Cohen’s “nature of scene – tourist’s impression of scene” (1979a, p. 26) theoretical framework of four types of touristic situations, which considers the interaction between the nature of the site (original vs. reproduced) and the perceived authenticity (objectively authentic vs. staged). We also examine authenticity perceptions as potentially influenced by tourists’ orientation toward object-based authenticity, that is, by values tourists place on attractions being genuinely authentic, organic, and true (Stepchenkova & Belyaeva, 2021). Further, the study investigates (1) the impact of authenticity orientation and Cohen’s touristic situations on existential authenticity of tourist experience and (2) all those factors on intention to re-create that experience and recommend it to others.

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EXISTENTIAL AUTHENTICITY IN FOUR TOURISTIC SITUATIONS: A Case of Original and Reproduced Cultural Attractions

This study aims to extend understanding of the complex and heterogeneous nature of tourists’ authenticity perception and its impact on the tourism experience and desire to re-experience and provide a positive word of mouth. We adopted Cohen’s “nature of scene – tourist’s impression of scene” (1979a, p. 26) theoretical framework of four types of touristic situations, which considers the interaction between the nature of the site (original vs. reproduced) and the perceived authenticity (objectively authentic vs. staged). We also examine authenticity perceptions as potentially influenced by tourists’ orientation toward object-based authenticity, that is, by values tourists place on attractions being genuinely authentic, organic, and true (Stepchenkova & Belyaeva, 2021). Further, the study investigates (1) the impact of authenticity orientation and Cohen’s touristic situations on existential authenticity of tourist experience and (2) all those factors on intention to re-create that experience and recommend it to others.