The role of mundane authenticity in international tourists' experiences; evidence from Chinese tourists to Australia

Conference Contribution ResearchOnline@JCU
Pearce, Philip L.;Chen, Tingzhen;Harrison-Hill, Tracey;Kuilboer, Alf;Wu, Mao-Ying
Abstract

The importance of understanding tourists' experience is a growing interest area in tourism and hospitality study. The interest in experiences was boosted by the work of Pine and Gilmore (1998) and their widely cited work on the experience economy. Pine and Gilmore, as business researchers, have subsequently written about the authenticity of experiences as a further key concept in the conceptual toolkit for understanding consumers (Gilmore & Pine, 2007). In this trajectory of work they are following paths of inquiry already traversed by a number of tourism scholars (Cohen, 1979, 2007, 2011; MacCannell, 1976, 1990; Wang, 1999). Importantly, much of the work commenting on authenticity, whether deriving from the business or tourism tradition, is conceptual rather than informed by evidence and data. The present study seeks to use the data rich world of online travel reporting to provide insights into the reporting of experiences. More specifically, it seeks to assess the kinds of experiences reported by international tourists when they write blogs and record their photographs. The context for the study is Australia, and the international tourists whose blogs are considered are Chinese.

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2nd World Research Summit on Tourism and Hospitality

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5

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Orlando, FL, USA

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UCF Rosen College of Hospitality Management

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