Cultural heritage tourism at film-related tourism sites: staged and existential authenticity at Hengdian World Studios

Abstract

ABSTRACT The trend of incorporating culture and heritage into various aspects of tourism, such as film-related tourism, is gaining momentum. In addition to the film-related attractions, film-related tourism can encourage tourists’ engagement with cultural heritage tourism and consumption of heritage products at the destination. Examining the case of Hengdian World Studios (China), the world’s largest outdoor film studio and film shooting base, this paper discusses how cultural heritage tourism is induced at a film-related tourism destination as well as how the tourism destination represents authenticity and how tourists perceive such representations. Hengdian World Studios simulates several real heritage sites in different areas of China for screen media productions as well as for tourist consumption. This paper examines the concepts of ‘staged authenticity’ (MacCannell [1973]. Staged authenticity: Arrangements of social space in tourist settings. American Journal of Sociology, 79(3), 589–603. https://doi.org/10.1086/225585) and ‘existential authenticity’ (Wang [1999]. Rethinking authenticity in tourism experience. Annals of Tourism Research, 26(2), 349–370. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0160-7383(98)00103-0) in the context of tourism studies to understand cultural heritage tourism at film-related tourism sites. The discussion is based on research undertaken at Hengdian World Studios between 2018 and 2023 drawing on ethnographic methods and online interviews with 50 tourists. This paper contributes to the understanding of authenticity issues in tourism studies from different perspectives and the interconnections between film-related tourism and cultural heritage tourism.