Authenticity: origins and basis of discussion in tourism

Abstract

Authenticity in tourism is a recurrent subject in the tourists’ imagination, in the promotional effort of businesses and governments, and in the literature, of which occupies increasing space since the end of the fifties. The article seeks to comprehend how various disciplines and areas of knowledge study this authenticity, through seminal works that adopt innovative theories and perspectives, inaugurate research lines, and have great influence upon the literature. It comprises a detailed study of the literature, centered in seminal texts that study the tourists and the nature of tourism, and the tourism’s impacts upon the touristic area. The article discusses and appraises points as the object of study, the methodology, the perspective and the main discussions of these seminal texts, between themselves and with other works, allowing an intimate contact with their theory, concepts, and arguments. It describes and analyses their main common characteristics, critically appraising texts based on a modern theorizing of tourism, focused on the search for the essence of tourism and on the construction of a general theory of tourism. It is considered that the knowledge of these seminal terms is essential to the development of a multidisciplinary view of the concept of authenticity in tourism.