Authenticity is a term that emerged from the modern era. Travellers are demanding authentic, experientially oriented opportunities with more meaningful interactions with locals. Travellers of the new generation want to have meaningful travel which is sustainable as well as experiential. The rise of an experience economy that concentrates on entertainment, education, escapism, and esthetics has made authentic travel experiences more critical. The tourists are more aware of their needs and are motivated towards places that offer real experiences. The chapter aims to explain the concept of authenticity and relate it to the tourism and hospitality industry. The discussion around various kinds of authenticity as described in the literature has been done. A case study demonstrating authentic experiences in rural homestays has been included in the chapter. Further authentic experiences derived from various tourism and hospitality sectors like food, accommodation, and entertainment have been explained.
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Authentic experiences have been considered a significant motivational factor in the tourism and hospitality industry. Tourists travel to distant places in search of authentic experiences. With the rise of internet technologies, travellers are more knowledgeable than ever and are not satisfied with artificial and staged experiences. The literature has shown that tourists hunger for an authentic experience (Chhabra et al., 2013; MacCannell, 1973; Yeoman & McMahon-Beattie, 2006). Tourism, in this view, is seen as driven by curiosity to see how others live their lives. They want to move out of the ‘tourist bubble’ and experience the real side of the destination. Authentic experiences may include various components ranging from food, culture, architecture, customs, rituals, and people (Cohen, 1988; Paulauskaite et al., 2017; Sims, 2009; Vredeveld & Coulter, 2019).
However, there are many other types of authenticity, each with its respective definition or theoretical orientation: constructive authenticity, symbolic authenticity, existential authenticity, cool authenticity, activity-related authenticity, object/objectivist authenticity, emotional authenticity, performative authenticity, and so on (Aziz & Selamat, 2016; Holt, 2012; Jyotsna & Maurya, 2019; Kirillova et al., 2016). Authenticity in tourism has also been discussed by the researchers in the context of staged authenticity. MacCannell (1973) explained that the visitors might be satisfied with the staged authenticity as sometimes they are unable to experience the real side of the destination due to a large number of visitors present there. This is also coined as constructive authenticity. Staged authenticity, however, does not portray the true sense of the destination. The other kind of authenticity is where the tourists can experience or observe the ‘local’ life without any artificial staging and see the destination’s real side and people. While having authentic experiences, the tourists often explore the ‘new self’ and get transformative feelings. This kind of authenticity is called existential authenticity. In existential, authenticity comprises the feelings, emotions, and perceptions of the tourists.
The issue of authenticity in tourism is widely discussed, with several researchers offering alternative views. (Reisinger & Steiner, 2006). It has been pointed out that the tourist experience’s authenticity depends on tourists’ choices, interests, and knowledge, and it can differ from one individual to the other. The understanding of authenticity also depends upon who is experiencing or consuming the service or product (Newman, 2019; Terziyska, 2012). But even after all the debate, a study of authentic experiences becomes necessary to understand the motivations of those tourists who choose destinations that are not so popular with the masses and travel extensively to observe culture and people or be alone in a natural setting. In this context, this chapter addresses the concept of authenticity in the tourism and hospitality industry. It presents several practical examples that deliver authentic tourism experiences while considering different dimensions of authenticity in the literature.