Many travelers today are looking for authentic travel? What is causing this desire for authenticity? What is authentic travel? Could it actually exist in our increasingly “packaged” world?

A recent WorldHum interview with author, Andrew Potter of The Authenticity Hoax attempted to answer some of these questions. In Potter’s book, he argues that “our society’s pursuit of authenticity is misguided; it weakens our communities and relationships, and leads to a “disguised form of status-seeking.”

In defining authenticity, Potter states that people generally invoke “a vocabulary that talks about things and experiences and people and places that are either a refuge from the modern world or in tension with it, or in opposition to it, or in some way antithetical to the modern world.”

He agrees that authentic travel experiences exist, but they are few and costly. So authentic travel becomes a luxury good. Potter believes that “the search for authenticity is the defining trait of contemporary urban North America” and is most prominent in certain socioeconomic, educated class. While there are degrees of authenticity, as experiences become more authentic, so do the prices attached to them. Ultimately, the most authentic experience is something that nobody can actually buy at all. Now, is that the ultimate status symbol?

Post by Nate Coburn

photo credit: stig nygaard