Existential Authenticity and Anxiety as Outcomes: The Tourist in the Experience Economy

Abstract

The idea of meaning‐making as embedded in the experience economy 3.0 implies that greater consumption does not lead to greater contentment, and thus, products that have the capacity to meaningfully transform a consumer are to constitute the ultimate economic offering. Conceptualizing transformation as changes in tourist existential authenticity and anxiety, this study investigates the effect of tourism on these existential dimensions. Utilizing the survey data, we find positive effects and discover that perceived meaningfulness is the major influencing factor. Additionally, the type of tourism experiences, travel party size, tourist gender, age, and educational level significantly affect tourist existential authenticity and anxiety. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Review of Optimism, Creativity, and Spirituality in Tourism Research

“…The tourism system is changing from 'economy' to an 'experience economy' where tourists' seek a more personal and transformational experience (Kirillova, Lehto & Cai, 2016). Thus a different perspective is needed to better adapt to the current trends.…”

‘The smell of death and the smell of life’: authenticity, anxiety and perceptions of death at Varanasi’s cremation grounds

“…Research on the experiential aspects of authenticity has garnered considerable attention in the last decade. While Bruner (1991) describes tourists' desire for self-transformation through an encounter with 'authentic' cultures, more recently scholars examine the ways tourists understand authentic experiences and their own Being while on holiday (Belhassen, Caton, & Stewart, 2008;Brown, 2013;Buchmann, Moore, & Fisher, 2010;Kim & Jamal, 2007;Kirillova et al, 2016Kirillova et al, , 2017Rickly-Boyd, 2012b, 2013bVidon & Rickly, 2018;Wang, 1999;Wassler & Kirillova, 2019). Existential authenticity refers to an experience that involves a sense of self identity activated by the liminality of tourism and informed by both interpersonal (family ties, communitas) and intrapersonal dimensions (bodily feelings, self-making) (Wang, 1999).…”

“…In tourism studies, anxiety is discussed in relation to motivation (see Brown, 2013;Canavan, 2017;Kirillova et al, 2016;Shepherd, 2015;Vidon & Rickly, 2018). While Dann (1977) was among the first to note the implications of 'anomie' for touristic motivation, the concept received little attention until the last decade.…”

“…Indeed, research suggests that despite its subjectivity, place matters for the experience of existential authenticity (Rickly-Boyd, 2013b), and that tourism can often function as a catalyst for making life changes post-travel in order to enact ideals of existential authenticity in everyday life (Brown, 2013). Further, an existentialist perspective has been enriched by research focused on the role of existential anxiety in tourism motivation and experience (Kirillova, Lehto, & Cai, 2016, 2017Vidon & Rickly, 2018). Thus, this paper empirically examines some fundamental questions of dark tourism research, such as how gazing at the death of others paves the way for authentic experiences in cross-cultural tourism encounters.…”

A critical realist appraisal of authenticity in tourism: the case of the Sámi

“…Reisinger and Steiner (2006) came to the conclusion that existential authenticity affects tourists' existential anxiety once they have returned home. Furthermore, the meaningfulness of their experience is determined by the value the tourists themselves place on the experience (Kirillova, Lehto, and Cai 2017). Park, Choi, and Lee (2019) found that objective authenticity does not influence loyalty, while constructive authenticity affects both existential authenticity as well as tourist satisfaction.…”