Authenticity in Traditional Tourist Lodges and The Development of Cultural Economy

Tourism industry is a context where the gap between culture and economy decreases, since beside its economic advantages, tourism is known for its sociocultural aspects. Among others, ecotourism is a form of tourism which is highly depend on cultural activities and traditional tourist lodges is a recent answer to ecotourists' need of residency. With a sociological view, these kinds of lodges can be a context to the cultural economy where authenticity matters. How could applying authenticity in these traditional tourist lodges, help cultural economy develop? To answer this question, this paper studied the stakeholders' perception of authenticity, using deductive qualitative content analysis. To categorize the semi-structured interviews with 16 owners and 17 tourists, categories were extracted based on Gilmore and Pine's theory of authenticity. Results showed that presenting authenticity in these lodges should be continued in five phases: authenticity before starting the construction, authenticity during the construction of subjective elements, authenticity during the construction of objective elements, authenticity during the interactions, authenticity after tourist's leaving. Owners trying to present authenticity to their guests would help in the development of cultural economy.