Experiencing the real village – a netnographic examination of perceived authenticity in rural tourism consumption

Destination Authenticity as a Trigger of Tourists’ Online Engagement on Social Media

“…While traveling, tourists may struggle to distinguish the real from the fake, because many heritage destinations have a variety of physical and symbolic attractions, ranging from products and architecture to activities and lifestyles (Lee et al 2016; Lin and Liu 2018). In particular, cultural tourists may formulate their own perceived standard for confirmation in deciding what is genuine, true, authentic, and accurate in a destination they visit by relying heavily on the appraisal of experts (Jyotsna and Maurya 2019; Reisinger and Steiner 2006). Thus, the tourists’ engagement in destination authenticity allows them to index or master what they perceive to be character forming, or qualitatively, for “their own knowledge expansion” (Jyotsna and Maurya 2019; Spielmann, Babin, and Manthiou 2018).…”

“…In particular, cultural tourists may formulate their own perceived standard for confirmation in deciding what is genuine, true, authentic, and accurate in a destination they visit by relying heavily on the appraisal of experts (Jyotsna and Maurya 2019; Reisinger and Steiner 2006). Thus, the tourists’ engagement in destination authenticity allows them to index or master what they perceive to be character forming, or qualitatively, for “their own knowledge expansion” (Jyotsna and Maurya 2019; Spielmann, Babin, and Manthiou 2018). The indexical facets of destination authenticity come about when the destination conforms to tourists’ expectations, which then represent schema congruity (Valsesia, Nunes, and Ordanini 2015).…”

Determinants of Tourist Satisfaction and Dissatisfaction on Tourism Village

“…Those facilities are access, bed, information, toilet, electricity, internet and restaurant availability. Previous studies have mentioned those attributes as the satisfaction attributes in rural tourism such as access (Devi et al, 2014), hospitality (Loureiro & González, 2008), information (Devi et al, 2014), sanitation (Jyotsna & Maurya, 2019) and restaurant availability (Devesa et al, 2010). However, this study found two attributes that were not mentioned in rural tourism satisfaction attributes.…”

“…Tourist more concern on village attributes, especially atmosphere and landscape rather than activities such as buying a souvenir, learning culture, taking picture and trekking. Previous study has found that authentic experience and village facilities were more mentions in tourist review rather than village activities (Jyotsna & Maurya, 2019).…”

Smart Urban Tourism Destinations at a Crossroads

“…This becomes almost a paradox when, from a purely tourism-based perspective, it is these rural locations that remain the main (resigned?) curators of the very elements of authenticity that new generations of tourists crave (Sims, 2009;Jyotsna and Maurya, 2019). It seems, therefore, quite appropriate that a growing field of research and innovative policy-making in Europe is that of 'smart villages' (see, for instance, Visvizi and Lytras, 2018;and Lytras et al, 2019, amongst other emerging research).…”