The traditional marketplace: serious leisure and recommending authentic travel

Curran, Ross; Baxter, Ian W. F.; Collinson, Elaine; Gannon, Martin Joseph; Lochrie, Sean; Taheri, Babak; Thompson, Jamie; Yalinay, Ozge

Abstract

Services reliant on revenue generated from tourism are often beholden to how authentic visitors perceive their offering to be. From a managerial perspective, this is exacerbated when they serve a dual-purpose, as both actively ingrained in local culture and as showcased international tourist attractions. As such, this study contributes to Kolar and Žabkar's (2010) consumer-based model of authenticity by assessing the relationships between serious leisure, object-based and existential authenticity, and visitor word-of-mouth recommendations in Iranian cultural tourism. Utilising PLS-SEM, and drawing upon responses from 615 visitors to the Tabriz Grand Bazaar, it thus extends the model's applicability to the developing Middle-Eastern context. The results extend extant research by emphasizing the importance of object-based authenticity, as opposed to existential authenticity, in stimulating positive visitor word-of-mouth recommendations. Consequently, this study advances the prevailing understanding of the role of authenticity in stimulating positive behavioural intentions by highlighting how destinations can stimulate visitor recommendations.

Citation

Curran, R., Baxter, I. W. F., Collinson, E., Gannon, M. J., Lochrie, S., Taheri, B., Thompson, J., & Yalinay, O. (2018). The traditional marketplace: serious leisure and recommending authentic travel. Service Industries Journal, 38(15-16), 1116-1132. https://doi.org/10.1080/02642069.2018.1432603

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jan 21, 2018
• Online Publication Date: Feb 6, 2018
• Publication Date: Dec 10, 2018
• Deposit Date: Jan 17, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Aug 7, 2019
• Journal: The Service Industries Journal
• Print ISSN: 0264-2069
• Electronic ISSN: 1743-9507
• Publisher: Routledge
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 38
• Issue: 15-16
• Pages: 1116-1132
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02642069.2018.1432603
• Keywords: authenticity, serious leisure, recommendation, bazaar, word-of-mouth
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/1496552
• Contract Date: Jan 18, 2019