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Selling New Orleans to New Orleans

Tourism authenticity and the construction of community identity

Tulane University, USA, kgotham{at}tulane.edu

This article examines the process of tourism authenticity using a case study of the rise of tourism in New Orleans during the first half of the 20th century. Tourism authenticity is a process by which tourist modes of staging, visualization, and experience shape and `frame' meanings and assertions of local culture and heritage. Empirically, I examine the place promotion efforts of the New Orleans Association of Commerce to `sell New Orleans to New Orleans', to convince local people that tourism was not only a lucrative economic development strategy but constitutive of civic life and urban culture. I analyze minutes of meetings, reports, and analyses from the Association of Commerce to illustrate how elite conceptions of urban reality were woven into discourses about New Orleans community and authenticity. Theoretically, I show that the study of interplay of place promotion and authenticity construction is a useful strategy for deepening our understanding of the complex intersections of local actions and global processes in the emergence of modern tourism in the United States.

Key Words: authenticity • community • culture • identity • New Orleans • tourism

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Tourist Studies, Vol. 7, No. 3, 317-339 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/1468797608092515


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This Article Abstract Free Full Text (Free PDF) Free Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Gotham, K. F. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?