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CHAPTER 8 Authentic Experiences* One of the fundamental criticisms of tourism is that it leads to pseudo-events that fail to reflect the true culture of a place (Boorstin, 1964). This criticism suggests that in the process of catering to visitors, tourism operators create packages and foster experiences that corrupt the cultural essence of the attraction. In effect, the destination becomes a stage featuring performances by hosts who are removed from their real lives, their real homes and their real culture. As a result, tourist experiences are diminished. Typically, the tourism industry has been blamed for this erosion of authenticity, and increasingly the industry itself has identified inauthenticity as an issue. Gilmore and Pine (2007) capture this sentiment with their message that authenticity is what consumers want and, by extension, what producers should be providing. In this chapter, we argue that sport offers unique qualities relative to other types of cultural tourist attractions in terms of facilitating authentic tourist experiences. We do this by positioning sport as a cultural tourist attraction and highlighting the challenges of commodification. The balance of the chapter uses Wang’s (1999, 2000) framework of authenticity to demonstrate the relevance of sport attractions as agents for authentic tourist experience. CONTENTS Sport as a cultural tourist attraction Commodification Authenticity Conclusion SPORT AS A CULTURAL TOURIST ATTRACTION Sport fits nicely under Leiper’s (1990:371) framework of a tourist attraction, which he defines as ‘. a system comprising of three elements: a tourist or * This chapter is extensively derived from Hinch, T.D. & Higham, J.E.S. (2005). Sport, tourism and authenticity. European Sports Management Quarterly, 5(3): 245–258. Special issue: Sports tourism theory and method. Guest editor: Mike Weed. Sport and Tourism Copyright Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd, All rights reserved. 145 146 C H A PT E R 8 : Authentic Experiences human element, a nucleus or central element, and a marker or informative element. A tourist attraction comes into existence when the three elements are connected’. In the context of sport, the human element includes competitive and elite athletes, spectators and an assortment of supporting personnel. Markers take the form of advertisements and various media representations of sporting places. The nucleus is where sport is produced and consumed. It is where the games, activities and competitions that characterize sport are played and otherwise engaged in. It is our contention that all sports, both urban and nature-based, are cultural manifestations and therefore are potential cultural attractions. For example, Bale (1994) argues that sports are not natural forms of movement but rather form part of a cultural landscape. Even sports that take place in supposedly natural environments actually take place in environments that are subject to cultural modification. Golf courses, for instance, are designed, maintained and otherwise used by humans clearly making them a part of a cultural landscape (Priestley, 1995). A sport attraction is also a cultural attraction to the extent that sport identities (see Chapter 4, Culture and identity) are a reflection of the culture in a place. These identities represent the way communities are perceived and are projected based on prevailing social and ideological values and practices (McConnell & Edwards, 2000). In his book Travels with Charley, novelist John Steinbeck (1963) suggests that visitors can obtain a sense of local culture by going to a local pub on a Saturday night or to a church service the next day. In both cases, the visitor is able to share in local celebrations that reflect an important dimension of the culture of a place. The pub and the church service function as recognized ‘windows’ or perhaps even ‘portals’ into the backstage of a destination. A similar argument can be made for sport events and activities, as sport is one of the ways in which humans develop their personal and collective identities. Nauright (1996) goes as far as to claim that in ‘. many cases, sporting events and people’s reactions to them are the clearest public manifestations of culture and collective identities in a given society’ (p. 69). Notwithstanding this perspective, processes of globalization have challenged the traditional view that sport ‘embodies local culture’ (E. Cohen, personal communication, 12 June 2007). This is especially true in the context of sports like football with its global appeal, global competition, worldwide media distribution and the global mobility of its elite players. Yet, even in the case of football, there are local variations in style and passions that are consistent with Maguire’s (1999) argument that there are increasing varieties even in the face of diminishing contrasts as the local negotiates its place in the global (see Chapter 2, Sport and tourism in a global world). Commodification For example, a visitor will experience a significant aspect of Canadian culture by attending an ice hockey game while in Canada (Gruneau & Whitson, 1993). More generally, visitors who attend local sporting events, participate in local sport activities or visit local sites to venerate sports/people are afforded a unique opportunity to access the backstage of a destination. Furthermore, their visit is not likely to be as intrusive as visits to many other cultural sites because these elements of sport experience, despite their cultural significance, tend to be viewed as being within the public rather than private domain. COMMODIFICATION Tourism is a business. Tourism operators, governments, local hosts and tourists tend to rationalize their decisions in economic terms and behave as actors in a common market (Pearce, 1989). The fundamental rationale for tourism development is an economic one; destinations and providers of tourism goods and services seek net economic gains. Tourism activities are, therefore, a form of commercial exchange. Destination resources such as attractive climates, beautiful landscapes and unique local cultures are packaged in a multitude of ways that are designed to provide leisure experiences for visitors. These experiences are exchanged for the visitors’ economic resources, which are usually collected through an assortment of fees charged for tour packages, attractions, accommodation, food and beverages, transportation, souvenirs and other visitor-related products and services as well as through avenues of government taxation. Cohen (1988:380) described this exchange as a form of commodification or . a process by which things (and activities) come to be evaluated primarily in terms of their exchange value, in a context of trade, thereby becoming goods (and services); developed exchange systems in which the exchange value of things (and activities) is stated in terms of prices form a market. Commodification has drawn considerable attention from critics of tourism who suggest that selling landscapes and culture in this type of exchange is somewhat akin to prostitution in that by engaging in these transactions, the destination is sacrificing part of its soul (Greenwood, 1989). The commodification of local culture is seen as especially challenging given the intrusive nature this can have in terms of the backstage of a destination. Sport is rapidly moving toward a similar degree of commodification as reflected, for example, in the trends towards professional competition, 147 148 C H A PT E R 8 : Authentic Experiences commercial intrusion, increased media involvement and the emergence of transnational sport equipment manufacturers. McKay and Kirk (1992:10) argue that ‘[w]hereas cultural activities such as . sport once were based primarily on intrinsic worth, they are now increasingly constituted by market values’ (see Case study 8.1). Case study 8.1 Promotional culture, indigenous identity, and the All Blacks Haka: Questions of commodification and authenticity Jay Scherer (University of Alberta, Canada) This case study examines issues of commodification and authenticity as they relate to the production and consumption of sport experiences that are increasingly mediated and incorporated into a global promotional culture. On 16 June 2007, Italian truck manufacturer Iveco, a multinational corporation with little or no connection to the sport of rugby union (or to New Zealand for that matter) became the official global sponsor of the All Blacks. In doing so, Iveco joined a host of other corporations including adidas, Coca Cola, Ford, Wheet-Bix, Steinlager and Mastercard in articulating their brand with the All Blacks, and by extension, New Zealand identity. These issues speak precisely of the impact of globalization on rugby as the New Zealand Rugby Union (NZRU) and its corporate ‘partners’ aggressively pursue new revenue streams and global audiences (Hope, 2002; Scherer, Falcous, & Jackson, 2008). A corollary of the exponential increase in the marketing of the All Blacks, however, has been the intensive commodification of M aori culture and specifically the Ka Mate haka, which is performed by the All Blacks prior to each test match. For example, to anoint their global sponsorship, Iveco recently released three versions of a televised advertisement, which aired in Italy, Spain, Great Britain, and New Zealand and featured several All Blacks of Polynesian, Maori and Fijian descent performing the Ka Mate haka to equate the power of the All Blacks with the 4WD Iveco Stralis. Revealing the ongoing erosion of the territorial frontiers of the global advertising industry, the Iveco All Blacks campaign, which so heavily commodified the Ka Mate haka and M aori culture, was developed and produced by the Domino advertising agency, in Italy. Iveco’s sponsorship of the All Blacks has seemingly extended well beyond a simple partnership between the NZRU and a multinational corporation. More specifically, in 2007 various aspects of M aori culture, including the Ka Mate haka, were central to the Notte Bianca (an annual allnight cultural festival) which was hosted in Rome to promote not only Iveco but also New Zealand, which exists as a ‘brand state’ (Van Hamm, 2001) in the competitive and lucrative global tourist market. An Iveco press release noted: Iveco and New Zealand’s Embassy in Rome will lead the public all the way to New Zealand, accompanied by the Haka dance that will introduce the Maori cultural identity . In the collective ritual of the Haka dance, Iveco will join the Maori people in confirming the values (Commitment, Reliability, Performance and Team Spirit) that it shares with the New Zealand rugby team, the All Blacks . During the Haka dance, the streets of Rome will become a marae, the traditional open-air space in which social ceremonies are held. The shouts and foot-stamping will reaffirm the endurance of the Maori cultural heritage; watching this spectacle . onlookers will witness an identity and values whose power remains undiminished even in today’s world. (Iveco, 2007) It can be suggested, then, that M aori culture and the New Zealand state have been incorporated into commercial enterprise, market dynamics and a global promotional culture in which almost every element of social and cultural life has become a sales pitch and where consumer identities Commodification have become the currency of everyday life. What is plainly visible here is not only the ongoing delocalization of M aori identity and culture but also the possibilities of vicariously experiencing the world’s geography: The interweaving of simulacra in daily life brings together different worlds (of commodities) in the same space and time. But it does so in such a way as to conceal almost perfectly any trace of origin, of the labour processes that produced them, or of the social relations implicated in their production. (Harvey, 1990:300). Following Harvey (1990), these broad cultural-economic conditions are clearly of interest for sport tourism scholars and students interested in the critical study of globalization and the increasing premium that is being placed on the production of ‘authentic’ Indigenous traditions and heritage experiences for the consumption of global audiences, sports fans and tourists. More importantly, however, these issues are of paramount importance for M aori who are witnessing an exponential growth and interest in the use of M aori imagery, symbols and designs to promote commercial products and specific places as tourist destinations (Solomon, 2007). These developments have, incidentally, galvanized many Maori who are concerned with the misrepresentation of their culture and are at the core of M aori struggles over the legal protection and identification of intellectual property rights, a reminder of the different types of claims being placed on identity and ‘authenticity’ in the global economy. Two sport-related examples point to the relevance of these issues. In 1999, adidas released a widely acclaimed television commercial entitled ‘Black’. The commercial was based largely around the spectacle of the Ka Mate haka and Maori culture: it was developed as a ‘primal, scary ad’ (Primal Team, 1999:22) to reach adidas’s companywide global target market of 14–25-year olds in over 70 countries around the world. Despite going to extensive lengths to produce ‘authentic’ representations of indigenous culture, including consulting with some M aori and transforming the commercial set into a marae [communal meeting place], the advertising executives decided to technologically enhance the commercial by adding a simulated moko (facial tattoo) to the main warrior who features so prominently in the ad. The commercial’s stereotypical imagery, including the fabricated moko were, however, greeted with derision from some M aori who argued that indigenous culture cannot simply be haphazardly simulated and inserted into commercials that are controlled by nonM aori. Referring specifically to the use of the moko, lawyer Maui Solomon explained: The tau moko is not just the individual lines on the face it tells a whole story of that person’s heritage, of the marae of the tribe . it’s part of that collective right . the person carries all of that mana, all of that heritage, all of that tradition. So, it is wrong for me to go and try and copyright an ancestor figure that’s been carved on a tree because I’ve got a company and I want to use it on a logo because that belongs to my collective, it belongs to my iwi. (Solomon, cited in Jackson & Hokowhitu, 2002:136) Finally, in 2005 thousands of rugby fans travelled to New Zealand to support the British and Irish Lions rugby team. A key component of their sporting and cultural experiences consisted of not only watching or attending the various rugby matches but also consuming the advertising and marketing for the Lions tour, which was laden with indigenous imagery. One of the most significant campaigns was adidas’s ‘Stand in Black’ promotion that consisted of the placement of a number of ‘Haka Man’ statues around New Zealand. One of adidas’s statues on Watchman Island was, however, unceremoniously toppled by a local M aori group who considered the statue to be culturally insensitive. Beyond this, it is important to note that even a number of high-profile All Blacks, including Byron Kelleher for example, have recently suggested that the performance of the Ka Mate haka prior to each match is little more than a promotional stunt and no longer reflects the values of the All Blacks. Regardless, these actions and claims clearly raise a number of complicated questions pertaining to the production of ‘authentic’ advertising and sport tourism experiences, especially in light of the growing concerns of indigenous peoples 149 150 C H A PT E R 8 : Authentic Experiences in terms of how they are represented in contemporary marketing campaigns. Selected references Jackson, S. and Hokowhitu, B. (2002). Sport, tribes and technology. Journal of Sport and Social Issues, 26, 2: 125–139. Scherer, J., Falcous, M. and Jackson, S. (2008). The media sports cultural complex: Local-global disjuncture in New Zealand/Aotearoa. Journal of Sport & Social Issues, 32, 1: 48–71. Solomon, M. (2007). A long wait for justice. In Resistance: An Indigenous Response to Neoliberalism, (M. Bargh, ed.) pp. 75–84, Wellington: Huia Publishers. Sport tourism represents but one of the many ways in which sport is being commodified. The question remains, however, whether this commodification is destroying the cultural meaning of sport in tourism destinations. Stewart (1987:172) suggests that this is the case by arguing that Social hegemony of the commodity form is apparent as the practice of sport is shaped and dominated by the values and instrumentalities of the market . the idealized model of sport, along with its traditional ritualized meanings, metaphysical aura, and skill democracy, is destroyed as sport becomes just another item to be trafficked as a commodity. But has this idealized model of sport ever really existed? If sport is recognized as being dynamic in nature, then change is a normal part of its evolution. The types of change that Stewart has highlighted are consistent with the changes that characterize globalization more generally (see Chapter 2, Sport and tourism in a global world). While these changes certainly present issues in terms of the way sport has traditionally been viewed, they do not necessarily destroy its cultural essence. So while recognizing the potential negative impacts of the commodification of culture for tourism, the process itself is not automatically destructive. For example, Cohen (1988:383) argued: Commodification does not necessarily destroy the meaning of cultural products, neither for the locals nor for the tourists, although it may do so under certain conditions. Tourist-oriented products frequently acquire new meanings for the locals, as they become a diacritical mark of their ethnic or cultural identity, a vehicle of selfrepresentation before an external public. These observations resonate particularly well in the context of sportbased attractions. Notwithstanding the globalization of many sports, attractions based on local sporting events, activities and nostalgia tend to Commodification reflect local culture whether it is manifest in unique playing styles, emotions or fundamental values. For example, tourists attending an amateur thakrow competition in a Thai village achieve first-hand insights into local styles of play, just as those experiencing genuine Thai boxing competitions are ruthlessly exposed to unique local values and emotions. The same may be said of most sports, from village cricket in rural England to Melbourne’s Australian Football League (AFL) competition. In contrast to many types of cultural attractions, those based on sport tend to be more robust and resilient to the potential compromises of commodification. For instance, one of the characteristics of sport is that the display of physical prowess is an integral part of many sporting activities (Loy, McPherson & Kenyon, 1978). Display suggests that in addition to the athletes producing live sport, there is an audience that views or consumes it. Spectatorship, therefore, is a natural part of sport events, especially at more competitive levels. This is not to suggest that spectatorship is universal. There is, in fact, a broad range of spectator interest in events. Events that are recreational in nature or which are being contested by players in their early stages of skill development are likely to attract fewer spectators than elite competitions (Hinch & Higham, 2004). Yet even these types of events can attract a loyal following of family and friends. Carmichael and Murphy (1996) provide clear evidence of high levels of spectator travel for youth, recreational (non-competitive) and non-elite sports in Canada. Furthermore, the suggestion that the locals tend to view tourist-oriented products as diacritical marks of their cultural identity fits very well with the view that sport is a major determinant of collective and place identity (Nauright, 1996; Bale, 1989). In hosting visiting spectators and sports enthusiasts, the collective identity of the locals may be used by tourism marketers to influence destination image (Whitson & Macintosh, 1996). Finally, despite the challenges of commodification in terms of the changes that it inevitably brings to the meaning of these tourism products, it is unlikely to destroy the authenticity of sport given the uncertain outcomes associated with sporting competitions. While the commodification of sport has been accompanied by entertainment and spectacle, as long as the outcomes of these competitions remain uncertain, authentic sport experiences are likely to be the result. In this sense, sport-based attractions avoid the challenges of staged authenticity that characterize other cultural tourist attractions such as indigenous dance performances. Exceptions to this type of authenticity include both overt and covert staging. Examples of what are generally considered to be overt staging include demonstrations or performances such 151 152 C H A PT E R 8 : Authentic Experiences as Thai Boxing matches performed for tourists in Pattaya, Thailand and the popular World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) matches in North America which are scripted in advance. Examples of covert staging include resort golf courses intentionally designed to facilitate low scores and bulls that have been bred to favour dramatic kills by matadors. While these types of examples are the exception rather than the rule, the illegal use of steroids represents a form of covert staging that appears to be much more pervasive. It provides unfair advantages to dishonest athletes thereby undercutting the advantages of uncertain outcomes and the essence of fair competition in sport (E. Cohen, personal communication, 12 June 2007). More generally, however, sport attractions offer the promise of authenticity, which is increasingly rare in other types of cultural attractions. AUTHENTICITY The role of authenticity in tourism has been a subject of interest to academics for over four decades. Boorstin’s (1964) criticism that tourism fosters pseudoevents highlighted the issue of the real versus the fake in tourism. This was followed by a body of work by MacCannell (e.g., 1973, 1976) in which he argued that the search for authenticity is one of the main motivations for travel. His contributions included the concept of staged authenticity based on Goffman’s (1959) idea of the front versus back regions of social places. An example of this form of authenticity is an organized tour of a sports stadium or arena that provides access to the players’ changing rooms (e.g., tours of Wembley Stadium, Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Club). While giving the impression that these tours provide a glimpse into the backstage of a destination, the management of these tours really means that the locker rooms are extensions of the front stage at least at the time of the tour. Taylor (2001:10) captures the essence of this view of authenticity in his suggestion that tourists ‘. are driven by the need for experiences more profound than those associated with the ‘‘shallowness of their [modern] lives’’’. They are searching for real things, real people and real places. Unfortunately, the paradox inherent in tourism is that genuine authenticity is virtually impossible to find as the very presence of a tourist destroys the purity of the toured object, whether it is a thing, a person or a place (Cohen, 2002). All tourist attractions are, therefore, contrived to some extent, although this disturbance would seem to be mitigated in the case of objects for which public display is a core component. An interesting variation of the basic concept of authenticity is emergent authenticity. Cohen (1988:379) describes this as ‘a cultural product . which Authenticity is at one point generally judged as contrived or inauthentic may, in the course of time, become generally recognized as authentic’. Disneyland is a good example, as it was initially viewed as being inauthentic but then ‘emerged’ as an authentic representation of American culture (Johnson, 1981). Increasingly, the view that most tourists seek objective authenticity is being challenged. It is argued that rather than seeking authentic objects, tourists tend to be seeking enjoyable and perhaps meaningful experiences (Cohen, 1995; Urry, 1990). Often the search for objective authenticity seems to fall outside of the motivations for mass tourism (Wang, 1999). Popular tourist activities such as visiting amusement parks are more about entertainment and pleasure seeking. The extent that authenticity is important to tourists depends in a large part on their personal perspective (Boniface & Fowler, 1993). As a result of these developments, the focus in the literature is changing from the authenticity of the toured object to the authenticity of the experience of the tourist. At the same time that it was being recognized that there were a broad range of travel motivations beyond the ‘search for authenticity’, post-modern scholars were also questioning the very concept of authenticity itself. Harvey’s (1990) discussion of simulacra – as a copy of the original that never existed – highlights this perspective, as does Baudrillard’s (1983) concept of hyperreality in which the real and the fake are indistinguishable. The arguments of these authors suggest that it is unrealistic to expect that truth or knowledge can be objectively assessed in terms of time and place. For example, Featherstone (1991:99) argues that the post-modern city is characterized by ‘‘‘no-place space’’ in which the traditional senses of culture are decontextualized, simulated, reduplicated and continually renewed and recycled’. Notwithstanding these thought provoking intellectual perspectives, the ever growing popularity of various travel guides, such as the Lonely Planet series, suggest that there remains a genuine quest for real experiences. Wang’s perspective of authenticity Wang’s (1999, 2000) review of authenticity in a tourism context recognizes the criticisms of post-modern scholars while at the same time offering a constructive perspective of authenticity as tourists experience it. He provides a pragmatic framework, which is used to consider the merit of sport as a tourist attraction for the balance of this chapter. His framework has been adopted for two key reasons. The first is that Wang recognizes the criticisms of post-modern scholars. Rather than abandoning the concept of authenticity, Wang has developed a typology that includes ‘existential authenticity’. This form of authenticity is concerned with the state of being of the tourist rather 153 154 C H A PT E R 8 : Authentic Experiences than the object of the tourist visit. From this perspective, tourists judge authenticity on the basis of their experience. The second reason for adopting Wang’s framework is that it provides an intriguingly good fit for the examination of sport. It serves as a useful heuristic to gain insight into sport tourism experiences that, to this point, have not been highlighted in the literature. Wang (1999) suggests that there are at least three different ways of thinking about authenticity in a tourism context. The first type of authenticity is labelled ‘objective authenticity’ in reference to the authenticity of the original. This is the type of authenticity on which Boorstin’s (1964) critique of tourism was based. It is best illustrated by the example of a museum curator who verifies whether a particular artefact is genuine or not. Similarly, a painting may be objectively judged to be real or fake. While this type of authenticity has application in the realm of sport museums (e.g., whether a uniform on display at the World of Rugby museum in Cardiff was actually worn by a specific individual in a particular championship game), it is of limited value in the context of contemporary sport. If sporting codes are recognized as dynamic things, claims that the objective authenticity of a sport has been corrupted due to a break from tradition cannot be given credence. In practice, there are few situations in which the toured object (i.e., sport) can be objectively judged in terms of authenticity. The second type of authenticity in Wang’s (1999) framework is labelled constructive authenticity. This refers to . the authenticity projected onto toured objects by tourists or tourism producers in terms of their imagery, expectations, preferences, beliefs, powers, etc. There are various versions of authenticities regarding the same objects. Correspondingly, authentic experiences in tourism and the authenticity of toured objects are constitutive of one another. In this sense, the authenticity of tourism objects is in fact symbolic authenticity. (Wang, 1999:352) Constructive authenticity recognizes that tourists adopt different meanings of reality based on their particular contextual situation. ‘Authenticity is thus a projection of tourists’ own beliefs, expectations, preferences, stereotyped images, and consciousness onto toured objects, particularly onto toured Others’ (Wang, 1999: 355). Rather than searching for authenticity in the ‘originals’, under this interpretation, tourists search for ‘symbolic’ authenticity. Toured objects are viewed as authentic because they are seen as signs or symbols of the real. This distinction accounts for the influence of tourism promotions and the preference of most tourists for a nostalgic or sanitized version of reality. Constructive authenticity, while still focused on the toured object, provides a broader interpretation of authenticity and allows