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This chapter discusses concepts from and research about experiential marketing and place branding to provide insights for authenticity studies in tourism. In order to offer a practical perspective, an empirical study was undertaken at a cacao farm in the Brazilian state of Bahia. The locality is known historically for its cacao production, but due to Vassoura-de-Bruxa (witch’s broom) plague diagnosed in 1989, local farmers saw their crops fail and thus sought other alternatives to secure the sustainability of their businesses. Tourism was one of these options. The chapter analyzes the authenticity of tourism experiences and the role marketing plays in this process.

Underpinned by the consumer-based model of authenticity (CBA), this study aims to investigate whether leisure involvement, object-based and existential authenticity, host sincerity and engagement stimulate positive memorable visitor experiences in a distinctive commercial hospitality setting: a living history site.

Quantitative data were gathered from living history site visitors (n = 1,004), with partial least squares structural equation modeling used to test the hypothesized relationships.

The results confirm the inclusion of the hypothesized relationships between leisure involvement, sincerity and authenticity, relative to engagement and subsequent memorability. The findings suggest that engagement can be a predictor of a positive memorable experience, contingent on CBA constructs (sincerity; object-based authenticity; existential authenticity). The significant association between object-based authenticity and memorable experience identified herein differs from some published studies, while other results are broadly consistent with extant research. Results also reveal significant differences for visitors who purchased souvenirs when compared to those who did not.

The research extends the CBA by positing sincere hospitality as a relationship-based encounter between host and guest that influences social interaction, engagement and memorability within the novel living history site context. Further, the ability to differentiate visitors based on their purchases at the site is illustrated.

Given the ubiquity of engagement and authenticity as precursors to memorable experiences within contemporary commercial hospitality and heritage discourses, the findings apply to hospitality experiences beyond the living history site context examined herein.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how tourists negotiate existential/experiential authenticity in cultural restaurant experiences as represented in their online reviews.

The paper uses netnography, a relatively novel web-based method, to examine the phenomenon of existential authenticity. Post-visit online reviews were analyzed to glean meanings and insights into tourists' lived experiences in Victoria Falls restaurants.

The analysis illustrates how the experience of existential authenticity is at the centre of tourist's recollections and more importantly, how it is a highly internalized, individual process. There is a strong suggestion in the tourists' reviews however that the totality of the experience is more important than its individual components; that a hedonistic search for “fun” characterizes the tourists' quest in tourism. Very little emphasis is placed on the authenticity of cultural objects, suggesting that existential authenticity may be more important in this context than objectivist authenticity.

First, the emphasis on the “total experience” highlights the importance of thinking beyond the food on the plate. Second, tourists' reference to having been “pleasantly surprised” should spur restaurateurs to indulge their creative abilities; to give tourists unexpected add-ons. Restaurants that are nonconformist, original, or unusual are likely to excite international travelers. Third, the importance of collective authenticity is well illustrated: tourists enjoy “sociality”. This means restaurant marketing collateral needs to reflect the social interaction concomitant to the experience. Finally, most tourists appreciate performative experiences, thus practitioners might need to offer more interactive rather than passive service consumption.

The study provides insights into a previously unresearched context using a nontraditional data collection method.

This paper aims to identify and elucidate the culinary territorial (regional) characteristics that may support the development of stakeholder relations with and perceptions of a territorial system. It further focuses on these support interactions between destination managers and stakeholders and how online technology can transform them into a word-of-mouth source.

The authors present a theoretical framework, stemming from a case study of a tour operator and its technological (social media, etc.) dynamics on the relational aspects between destination management and stakeholders. Through a combination of qualitative tools and secondary data analysis, this paper analyzes the interrelationships of authenticity and place-as-brand concept, considered as the set of human characteristics associated with a brand in a “living like” travel experience.

Culinary tourism is seen as a relevant and significant factor in facilitating interaction between the destination community and its stakeholders, and a meaningful element, which when technologically communicated and enhanced, strengthens both the perception and the brand image of a destination.

Such new technology-enhanced insights into tourists’ experience could be exploited to plan and implement destination management and development strategies in a way that would be expected, accepted and welcomed by stakeholders, including tourists themselves. In this context, this paper presents and prescribes the role of culinary characteristics and stakeholder relationship management to develop new culinary business models and different destination community approaches toward practical implementation at both the individual (business) and the collective (authorities) levels.

The proposed framework fills the gap in the role of culinary tourism resources particularly in those areas where food has no viable certification even if it essentially constitutes a manifestation of traditions.

The normalization of COVID-19 disease prevention has presented a major opportunity for the transformation and upgrade of cultural and tourism products in Taiwan. This paper aims to explore the attractiveness of Taiwanese military dependents’ villages, known as juancun, two studies were conducted to test the path relationships of juancun experiencescape, authenticity, memorability and revisit intention.

This research conducted two studies by using a mixed sampling of snowball sampling and purposive sampling for the questionnaire survey. Based on the 397 valid questionnaires retained in Study 1, a cultural heritage site experiencescape was developed and validated; in Study 2, 393 valid questionnaires were collected, and structural equation modeling was conducted to test hypotheses that were developed drawing on the stimulus–organism–response model and theory of buyer behavior.

It is revealed that cultural heritage site experiencescape include natural and cultural, social, sensory and functional factors and that the experiencescape affects authenticity positively; “existential authenticity–memorability” mediates the relationship of experiencescape and revisit intention, whereas co-creation behavior has the positive moderating effects on the relationship of experiencescape and authenticity.

The research developed an experiencescape scale for cultural heritage sites and described the managerial implications for destination management organizations regarding product development and service design.

COVID-19疫情防控的常态化为台湾的文化和旅游产品升级转型提供了巨大的契机。为了明确台湾眷村的旅游吸引力, 本研究操作两个研究设计以检定眷村体验景观、真实性、难忘性及重游意图之间的路径关系。

本研究操作的两个研究设计皆采用滚雪球抽样和目的性抽样的混合抽样方法进行问卷调查。基于研究设计一回收的397份有效问卷, 发展和验证了眷村文化遗产地体验景观量表; 运用研究设计二回收的393份有效问卷, 操作结构方程模型分析以检定基于刺激-机体-反应理论和买方行为理论发展的假设。

本研究揭示了文化遗产地体验景观包含自然与文化、社会、感官、功能性因素; 体验景观正向影响真实性; “存在主义真实性-难忘性”中介调节体验景观和重游意图的关系; 共创行为正向调节体验景观与真实性的关系。

本研究发展了文化遗产地体验景观量表, 并就产品发展和服务设计为旅游目的地管理组织提供了实务建议。

Esta investigación llevó a cabo dos estudios mediante un muestreo mixto de bola de nieve y muestreo intencionado para la encuesta por cuestionario. A partir de los 397 cuestionarios válidos retenidos en el Estudio 1, se desarrolló y validó el experiencescape del patrimonio cultural; en el Estudio 2, se recogieron 393 cuestionarios válidos y se realizó un modelado de ecuaciones estructurales para probar las hipótesis que se desarrollaron a partir del modelo estímulo-organismo-respuesta y la teoría del comportamiento del comprador.

La normalización de la prevención de la enfermedad COVID-19 ha supuesto una gran oportunidad para la transformación y mejora de los productos culturales y turísticos de Taiwán. Para explorar el atractivo de las aldeas de los familiares de militares en Taiwan, conocidos como juancun, se realizaron dos estudios para probar las relaciones de trayectoria del experiencescape del juancun, la autenticidad, la memorabilidad y la intención de volver a visitarlo.

Se revela que el experiencescape del patrimonio cultural de la aldea militar incluye factores naturales y culturales, sociales, sensoriales y funcionales, y que el experiencescape afecta positivamente a la autenticidad; la “autenticidad existencial-memorabilidad” media en la relación del experiencescape y la intención de volver a visitarlo, mientras que el comportamiento de cocreación tiene los efectos moderadores positivos en la relación del experiencescape y la autenticidad.

La investigación desarrolló una escala de experiencescape para el patrimonio cultural del sitio y describió las implicaciones gerenciales para las organizaciones de gestión de destinos en relación con el desarrollo de productos y el diseño de servicios.

This research is positioned at the intersection of youth subculture consumption and religious affiliation, through the study of observant Muslim women involved in the highly engaging and codified activity of cosplay. Given authenticity is central to the cosplay visual impact and performance, this study aims to understand the way hijab cosplayers negotiate tensions between authentic body performativity and the observance of religious dressing codes.

A qualitative interpretive approach was used to address the research questions. In-depth semi-structured online interviews were conducted with 25 members of a hijab cosplayers from South East Asia.

The concept of authenticity emerged as multifaceted for hijab cosplayers, where they manage three different aspect of the authentic cosplay performance as follows: authenticity as a cosplayer (social dimension of authenticity), authenticity to the character (personal dimension of authenticity) and authenticity to their religious identity (religious dimension of authenticity). The subsequent malleable authenticity is used to legitimate cosplay as an acceptable performative practice from a religious and from subcultural view.

The research highlights how tensions between identity and performativity of the body are negotiated. More specifically, the study contributes to the understanding of the way hijab cosplayers reconcile tensions between religious identity and the performativity of the body. Given the role of the body as a site for negotiating identity, this study provides important insights in the tensions and strategies at the intersection of authenticity, embodiment and religious identity in youth cultures.

The purpose of this paper is to problematize authenticity and integrity in the context of tourist-based interventions in historic cities through a case study of skewed strategies in urban conservation programs. The paper aims to explore the paradoxes of tourists’ requisites against the heritage management imperatives.

The methodology is a mix of case study and analytical study of theories, literature, and principles related to authenticity and integrity in urban conservation with a focus on tourism.

In the context of historic areas, while tourism is essential for generating the economic support necessary for conserving and managing a heritage site, lopsided strategies challenge the “authenticity” and “integrity” of the place.

Bringing forth the point of the authentic or curated identity, the paper argues for a framework grounded in authenticity and integrity for achieving balance in the management of historic cities.

The paper brings together the subject of authenticity and integrity in the context of tourist-based strategies in historic cities. It highlights the gap in current practices, which often gets into inadvertent consequences of tourists appreciating the intervention that appear to be against the fundamentals of heritage conservation.

This paper aims to discuss a framework in which the behavioural tourism and leisure literature is organised. It seeks to demonstrate the practical use of Gnoth's Tourism Experience Model (TEM), and provide future directions in holiday tourism research.

The paper takes a phenomenological approach to tourists' experiencing as a critical and productive tool for tourism development. The literature reviewed is structured through the four modes of experiencing outlined in the TEM: experience as pure pleasure, as re-discovery, as existentially authentic exploration, and as knowledge seeking.

The TEM provides a model for all potential experiencing, that is, it models the boundaries of what experiencing could be throughout the tourist journey. The discussion of the literature also shows that, in many occasions, different experiential stages, states and modes of feeling await far more detailed research.

The paper highlights not a particular mode or phase within an experience but better captures the latency of experiencing. The paper argues that the model helps to better distinguish the processes of experiencing and challenges research to identify phases and developments, strategies and heuristics that take the tourist's potential “travel career” or self-developmental trajectories into consideration.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the structural relationship between green persistence intentions and their seven drivers – green authenticity, green perceptual evaluation, green co-creation, green experiential memorability, green experiential satisfaction, green passionate love and green need for cognition in a green hotel context.

The data used in this study were based on a sample of 589 customers staying at one green hotel in New Taipei City of Taiwan. The predicted relationship was tested using the structural equation modeling and the hierarchical regression analysis.

The results indicate that green perceptual evaluation, green co-creation and green experiential memorability influence green experiential satisfaction. Green passionate love is influenced by green experiential satisfaction. Green need for cognition moderates the effect of green experiential satisfaction on green persistence intentions. Green persistence intentions are influenced by green experiential satisfaction and green passionate love.

To increase green authenticity, green perceptual evaluation, green co-creation, green experiential memorability, green experiential satisfaction, green passionate love, green need for cognition and green persistence intentions, the study findings will help green hotels to develop and implement market-orientated product and/or service strategies.

This paper provides data that lead to a better understanding of the relationships among green authenticity, green perceptual evaluation, green co-creation, green experiential memorability, green experiential satisfaction, green passionate love, green need for cognition and green persistence intentions in a green hotel context.

This study aims to investigate the rising trend of virtual influencers – digitally created characters with human-like attributes. It aims to evaluate and compare their effectiveness with human influencers in terms of brand attitudes and purchase intentions. It uncovers the mechanisms underlying the differences in effectiveness observed between virtual influencers and their human counterparts.

The research uses a 2 (influencer type: human vs virtual) × 3 (product type: functional vs symbolic vs experiential) between-subjects design. Through a pilot study (n = 334) and a main study (n = 352), the research examines the interactive effects of influencer and product type on brand attitude and purchase intentions. Hypotheses were developed and tested using moderating mediation models centered on authenticity and product–endorser fit.

Virtual influencers are perceived as less authentic than human influencers across all product types, negatively influencing brand attitude and purchase intention. However, the extent to which influencer type affects brand attitudes and purchase intentions, mediated by product–endorser fit, varies based on the product type.

This research emphasizes two key mechanisms – authenticity and product–endorser fit – influencing the effectiveness of virtual influencers. It suggests that aligning virtual influencers with suitable product types can offset their perceived authenticity deficit, significantly affecting their endorsement effectiveness.