“Authenticity” as a Pathway to Sustainable Cultural Tourism? The Cases of Gotland and Rapa Nui

Marije Eileen Poort, Ulrika Persson-Fischier, Helene Martinsson-Wallin, Evelina Elf Donaldson and Mareike Schaub
Additional contact information
Marije Eileen Poort: Department of Civil and Industrial Engineering, Uppsala University, 75237 Uppsala, Sweden
Ulrika Persson-Fischier: Department of Civil and Industrial Engineering, Uppsala University, 75237 Uppsala, Sweden
Helene Martinsson-Wallin: Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Uppsala University, 62167 Visby, Sweden
Evelina Elf Donaldson: Department of Civil and Industrial Engineering, Uppsala University, 75237 Uppsala, Sweden
Mareike Schaub: Department of Civil and Industrial Engineering, Uppsala University, 75237 Uppsala, Sweden

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 11, 1-14

Abstract: In this paper, two World Heritage island destinations are compared, Gotland in the Baltic and Rapa Nui in the Pacific. Both islands deal with a growing number of tourists, which asks for rethinking of tourism development. As cultural heritage plays a major role in tourism for both destinations, it is especially important to look into sustainable cultural tourism development from the perspective of authenticity. The paper is based on a variety of materials and takes an innovative approach to methods through a student–staff collaboration. The data show that social acceptance of tourism by local communities on both islands could be achieved through the creation of authentic experiences. Furthermore, data show that it is rather potent to engage both locals and tourists in modernized authentic experiences. However, this can only be done if locals are empowered and are genuinely allowed to steer the development of tourism.

Keywords: authenticity; sustainable tourism; liquid modernity; Gotland; Rapa Nui (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/11/6302/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/11/6302/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:11:p:6302-:d:567763

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().