Aims

The aims of this chapter are to:

• introduce the concept of authenticity as it applies to ethnic tourism experiences and ethnic visitor attractions, and to suggest that authenticity is a negotiated rather than a fixed attribute

• suggest that the process of authentication provides a tractable way of examining aspects of authenticity at visitor attractions

• provide a framework that identifies key stakeholders and five dimensions of authenticity that can be used to guide data collection and its interpretation at visitor attractions

• illustrate the utility of the framework through application to ethnic visitor attractions in Hainan, China.

Introduction

Tourism involves the movement of people outside their normal places of work and residence. As such, it provides participants with novel experiences, often bringing them into contact with unaccustomed places and people. For many tourists this is a search for the other , this being judged in relation to the self and one s usual behaviours and settings. Thus, tourism brings into contact people who are not only strangers to one another, but who may also be members of different ethnic groups. Sometimes, the presence of minority peoples is a visitor attraction in itself. However, even in such places, specific tourism businesses may be created to provide opportunities for tourists to experience aspects of ethnicity. This chapter is concerned with visitor attractions of this type. In particular, it addresses some of the tensions and trade-offs that should be addressed if such attractions are to meet the goals of the...