Authentication process of organic and recreated attractions and national culture

Keywords: attitude, authenticity, constructivist, culture, decision-making, postmodernist, realist, tourist attraction
Abstract Type: Paper Abstract

Abstract

We present new findings on how differences in attitudes toward object-based authenticity influence authentication process of tourist attractions by tourists from different cultural settings. The attitudinal value that an individual places on attractions being genuine and true versus being staged and recreated is named authenticity orientation and operationalized as realist, constructivist, and postmodernist. We take a country of residence as a proxy variable for national culture. Respondents from China, Mexico, Russia, South Korea, and the US were presented with images of four attractions and their short descriptions. Respondents had to decide whether these attractions were authentic in their view and whether they would consider these places for visitation. Indexically authentic attractions (e.g., Acropolis of Athens, Greece) were evaluated as authentic by respondents from all cultural settings; these respondents also expressed the same propensity to visit such attractions. The recreated and staged sites were more likely to be considered authentic by people with the authenticity orientation attitude in the constructivist-postmodernist spectrum, and less so by realists. This relationship, however, did not hold in all national samples, indicating that the nature of the attraction itself (e.g., the level of augmentation with technology and interpretive exhibits) might exert a stronger influence on the authentication process and propensity to visit than the authenticity orientation alone. National culture was found to be a factor in the authentication process. Overall, the study supports feasibility of authenticity orientation concept for tourism studies in different cultural contexts, contributing to the tourist authenticity literature.