Tourist perceptions of souvenir authenticity: an exploration of selective tourist blogs

Authenticity is a well-researched concept in tourism studies and has been an important theme during the past decades. However, literature specifically concerning souvenir authenticity in the context of tourism is limited. Handicrafts were originally made to fulfil the needs of communities such as pottery for carrying water and storing food. With the advent of tourism, changes occurred in the functions and forms of artworks and artisans began to change their crafts based largely on tourists' expectations of what souvenirs should be. The current study examined travel blog posts to understand tourist perceptions of souvenir authenticity using constructivist grounded theory. Fourteen international travel blog posts between June 2007 and February 2012 were analysed. Bloggers from Canada, USA, and England blogged about their trips to Indonesia, Croatia, Brazil, Canada, Spain, Turkey, Russia, Italy, Senegal, France, Peru, USA, Belgium, and Argentina. Four themes emerged describing authenticity: (1) using local materials at the destination, (2) crafting by hand and produced locally by artist, (3) displaying artist's signature or hallmark, and (4) uniqueness costing more, but higher quality and better design. Further analysis illuminates that constructivist authenticity is subjectively based upon individual connection to an object, their social networks, preconceived notions, and cultural biases.