The Impact of Different Aspects of Perceived Authenticity on the Tourist-Destination Relationship Quality: An Abstract

Abstract

Perceived authenticity (PA), known as individual’s impressions of the genuineness, uniqueness, workmanship, aesthetics, utility, multiple integrity of attributes and object free activities in a destination (Bryce et al. 2015; Fu et al. 2018). Two important gaps have been identified in this area of research. First, it has been investigated by major studies in culture- or historic- tourism context (Frost 2006; Lu et al. 2015; Zhou et al. 2013). However, there is no agreement on what constitutes the PA in a general tourism context. Second, despite that an increasing research has explored the impact of PA on destination branding relevant concepts, such as destination image (Lu et al. 2015), satisfaction (Chhabra et al. 2003), and loyalty (Yi et al. 2017), there is a lack of a holistic and in-depth understanding of how PA influences the destination relationship quality (DRQ). DRQ, conceptualised as satisfaction, trust and attachment in this study, is the emotional connection between tourists and destinations (Aaker 2004; Chen and Phou 2013; Veloutsou 2015). To this end, semi-structured interviews were conducted by asking visitors and non-visitors about their memories, ideas and overall feelings towards Scotland as a destination. The data analysis detects three aspects of PA that matter to tourists, namely the nature, heritage, and activity-based PA. The heritage-based authenticity results in tourists’ satisfaction and attachment of the destination, which is partly consistent with findings from Chhabra et al. (2003), Bryce et al. (2015) and Scarpi et al. (2019). The nature-based and activity-based authenticity result in tourists’ satisfaction, attachment and trust of the destination. The findings highlight that nature-based tourism should be a high priority for Scotland. The development of tourism products related to the unique nature of the destination could further enhance tourists’ experiences providing opportunities for a long-lasting relationship with the destination. In general, most marketers promote a destination based on the alliance of different aspects of PA. Therefore, a study of PA should be contingent upon which aspects the destination is mainly focusing on. Certainly, there is more work to be done in understanding specific elements included in each aspect of PA. A survey should be conducted to further confirm whether the configuration of those elements will predict positive DRQ.