Authenticity and Commercialisation: A Dialogical, Autoethnographic Exploration of the Tensions in Gastrotourism

Abstract

Gastrotourism is a significant revenue generator worldwide and relates to the deliberate seeking out of experiences related to eating and drinking during travel by tourists. Taking in the cultural, social, and personal dimensions related to gastrotourism, this dialogical, conversational autoethnography allows the personal stories of the two authors to emerge, contextualised in the body of theory surrounding this particular topic. Methodologically, the autoethnographic lens allows for the exploration of personal insights that would not necessarily be brought to the fore through more traditional research methods and follows the food-consumption experiences of two individual travellers seeking authenticity in their personal journeys. The lived encounters of the two researchers during trips across the European continent and beyond are detailed, and reveal such findings as the importance of authenticity, national identity and culinary heritage in gastrotourism. Thus, in connecting with this study, the reader can engage with a multi-faceted, polysemous, and emotionally stimulating autoethnographic explanation at the interface between consumer behaviour and gastrotourism.