Interrogating Racialized “Cultural Authenticity” Discourses Among Language-Learner Tourists in Australia

Stanley, Phiona; Wight, A. Craig

Abstract

This study considers cultural adaptation through tourism, focusing on language-travelers: hybrid education-tourism consumers whose voices remain relatively silent in tourism studies. Qualitative, semi-structured interviews were undertaken with students, teachers, and managers in Australian English language schools to understand what language-travelers expect from their Australian experiences and the implications for language schools. The findings propose that sojourners’ experiences are framed by pre-visit imaginaries of object authenticity, wherein the “object” is both Australian culture and the wider Anglophone “West.” Such imaginaries are found to be validated by language schools, which face pressure to balance letting students glimpse the “backstage” and staging out-group imagined “authenticities,” such as by hiring fun, approachable, and above all White teachers. We identify opportunities for language centers to understand their role within tourism as cultural mediators and suggest ways forward in promoting and inculcating critical intercultural competence among language-traveler sojourners.

Citation

Stanley, P., & Wight, A. C. (2024). Interrogating Racialized “Cultural Authenticity” Discourses Among Language-Learner Tourists in Australia. Journal of Travel Research, 63(6), 1511-1526. https://doi.org/10.1177/00472875231194272

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jul 27, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Sep 12, 2023
• Publication Date: 2024-07
• Deposit Date: Jul 31, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 12, 2023
• Print ISSN: 0047-2875
• Electronic ISSN: 1552-6763
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 63
• Issue: 6
• Pages: 1511-1526
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/00472875231194272
• Keywords: language learning tourism, intercultural awareness, authenticity, social imaginaries, object authenticity, Anglophone “West”
• Publisher URL: https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/journal/journal-travel-research