The relevance of storytelling for authenticity perception

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to understand how storytelling is relevant to authenticity. For the matter, a literature review was carried out on authenticity in tourism experiences and on storytelling, which provided the basis for the theoretical discussions of this study. An interpretative and qualitative approach was chosen with fieldwork applied to the context of cocoa and chocolate tourism at Combu Island (Ilha do Combu), Pará. Data collection took place through observation and semi-structured interviews, and the data - after being organized and transcribed - were analyzed using content analysis. It was found through the data that storytelling provided a connection between the objects, the place, the people (including the community and service providers) and the tourism experience. In this sense, the study was able to demonstrate the relationship between the elements of the relational approach to authenticity (Rickly-Boyd, 2012) with storytelling. Furthermore, the study reveals that the stories connect those involved in the experience and their repertoires, legitimize production processes, illustrate physical aspects and give meaning to actions.

Keywords
Narrative; Authenticity; Cocoa Tourism; Chocolate Tourism; Tourist Experiences; Combu Island