The Quest for Authenticity

In an earlier blog I mentioned some potential reasons of why we travel. Today I’d like to give some more attention to MacCannell’s notion of authenticity. His theory, in a nutshell, states that most (if not all) tourists are deeply dissatisfied in their home country, where experiences seem superficial and inauthentic. Tourism then is the exchange of the superficial life for another place, where experiences feel real.

Although I stated in an earlier blog that this theory does not apply to me as a whole, it does connect with me on some levels. For example, when we were in Jerash I bought a keffiyeh. Although I initially bought it to protect myself from the heat, I’ll admit I felt pretty cool wearing it. Especially when one of the local Jordanians came up to me on the street, to tell me I was wearing the thing horribly wrong; after which he taught me the proper way to tie a keffiyeh.

Fast forward a couple of days when we were riding a camel in the middle of the desert, and I was wearing my properly tied keffiyeh. Even though we just paid 10 dinars to a couple of tour guides who make their living off (presumably Western) tourists, the experience felt real.

So who’s to say what experience is authentic and which ones are inauthentic? I was acutely aware of the touristic nature of our ride and yet whenever I think back to our journey in Jordan, the image of us riding the camels springs to mind as one of the most authentic experiences. Authenticity, I think, is largely in the mind. You can stay in a resort, or travel the countryside, what matters is how you experience those events. If there is such a thing as the ‘quest for authenticity’ then it is an internal quest, unrelated to the actualities of the visitation.

References: Edensor, Tim. Tourism. Elsevier, 2009

                        MacCannell, Dean. The tourist: A new theory of the leisure class. University of                                     California Press, 1976.