AUTHENTICITY IN TOURISM

Two food campaigns from Scotland are used to review the impact of commodity production and post-modernism on the construction of authenticity. The recognition that cultural production, including tourism, is thoroughly imaginary directs attention to the politics of whose interests are embedded in cultural representations. The global scale of commodities, finance, media, and population has transformed the terms in which debates about authenticity and ideology take place. The image saturated character of ''reality'' dissolves the boundaries between a place centered view of authenticity and an aesthetic illusion, and raises questions about the continuing relevance of the traditional concept of authenticity. The paper makes a tentative beginning to a ''self'' oriented retheorization of what authenticity might be.