Developing a framework for indicators of authenticity: the place and space of cultural and heritage tourism

The authenticity of tourism destinations, sites, events, cultures and experiences is of concern to practitioners and researchers involved in the planning, marketing, and management of heritage and cultural tourism. We address authenticity under three dimensions – the objective (real), the constructed (sociopolitical) and the personal (phenomenological) – and two aspects that contextualize authenticity: space and time. Indicators for addressing the object and experience of place, as well as “sense of place,” are discussed within this framework. This shows how authenticity integrally involves situating the object within a place and space that constitute the lived experience of both tourists and residents. An example of aboriginal cultural sites illustrates how the politics of authenticity is also the politics of space, identity and ethnicity (lived heritage). The paper argues for a theoretical and practically useful framework to guide research and practice. The framework and indicator-based application of the framework presented here illustrate the importance of (1) identifying tangible and intangible properties and characteristics of objects, sites and places, and (2) recognizing that these are embedded within sociopolitical, interactive and interconnected relationships between object, place and person.