Many travellers and surely all tourists are very much interested in finding things and phenomena at their destinations that are authentic for that area. We may even consider this as one of the basic conditions of a holiday, because the tourist finds himself in an area that is different from his home environment and he wants to experience things that are typical for that area.
The search for something different or something distinct may even reach the level of dreams or imaginary images. Authenticity may evoke images of honest people, working the earth honestly to produce honest products single-handedly. Within this image there is no room for nuclear reactors, trade unions or traffic jams. The tourist looks for this one unique spot where this alliance between present and past can be found. When we connect this image with journeys to other continents, it may be mixed with images of primitivism, exotic tribes and historical stagnation; an image whereby the underdeveloped has to remain underdeveloped and the poor have to stay poor. It is this image of authenticity that is still very much alive among Western societies. Obviously, reality is quite different and never forget that authenticity is something seen through the eyes of humans, while things and phenomenon simply are as they are with or without authenticity.
Things that were original and real in a certain area were tied for place, depending on the geological and geographical characteristics of the region. Not only in Western societies, but nearly all over the world social and economic changes affect the structure of societies themselves and what is typical for an area is increasingly more difficult to define. The notion of tied to place has made way for the idea of tied to time. We have a notion of what was authentic during the 1930s, but it is quite possible that future generations may have a distinct view of this. Additionally, there is a tendency for ties to fade. Under the influence of globalizing tendencies among others, many things tend to look more or less the same. The authentic must have a historical element and something unique at the same time, but when these are incorporated into the larger mass of things, there is nothing unique about them and we should not call them authentic anymore.
Authenticity should unite cultural-history with identity elements. There may be cultural-historical elements that are so removed from our perceptions that they do not belong to our identity anymore. On the other hand things or phenomena may be formed in recent time, so they do not yet form part of our cultural-history. We can find authenticity therefore on the border line between cultural-history and identity.
We see tourism as an activity where the tourist takes a central spot and his living an experience is the specific focal point of what we call tourism. It is all about the intake of ImpCal on a voluntary basis in an area that is different from the tourist’s home environment and the tourist has to stay there overnight. That is called tourism. This means that the question of what is authentic in tourism has to be linked to the question of whether a tourist can get ImpCal out of it and whether this leads to a unique and authentic experience or not. The link between authenticity and experiencing is for us a fact and we even consider that authenticity is a means to the goal of experiencing.