Jewish Heritage Tourism in Krakow. Authenticity and Commodification Issues

Andrea Corsale

doi:10.3390/tourhosp2010008

Abstract

Tourism destinations located within rich and complex cultural contexts tend to offer a wide range of different experiences to visitors, spanning from standardized to more alternative ones. The quest for authenticity is central in the construction of tourism image and business, but easily raises questions related to appropriation, commercialization and trivialization. This study focuses on Jewish heritage tourism, a niche segment gradually turning into a mass tourism experience, through a qualitative research made in Krakow, Poland. Jewish-themed tourism in the area has gone through intense growth in spite of its dwindling Jewish population. As a consequence, the representation and consumption of the related heritage mostly occurs independently from the Jewish community itself and shows clear signs of commercial exploitation. The study results show that, in spite of the issues related to simplified narratives and staged practices, commodification, with its partial and functional reconstruction of the past, does not interfere with the religious or secular activities of the Jewish community, which is more pragmatically focused on present-day life.

Highlights

This paper presents a research work dealing with the issues of authenticity and commodification of minority heritage, with Jewish heritage tourism in the Polish city of Krakow as case study
The author consulted a range of secondary sources, such as statistical data on the demography and the economy of the area and materials that directly or indirectly deal with minority heritage management, representation and usage in Krakow and Poland. These include the municipal and the national institutional websites [37,38]. The combination of these different sources allowed understanding which aspects of Jewish history, identity and heritage have been selected and promoted, and how they have been turned into tourism products, or not, which permitted the discussion on the present dimension of commodification
According to the results discussed above, the issue of cultural appropriation is declined, at the local level, in an array of practices produced by non-Jewish stakeholders building a partial representation of some aspects of Jewish culture and heritage for non Jewish customers

Summary

Introduction

Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations According to this vision, the issue of authenticity almost inevitably arises when an ethnic, social or political group selects, authorizes, controls, interprets and manages the heritage of another one, for different purposes, including tourism. A repetitive, superficial and standardised cultural tourism product can be seen as a form of commodification, or staged authenticity [22,23] According to this vision, tourist operators, and tourists themselves, are a major source of heritage commodification because they tend to focus on simplified, standardized and marketable experiences, even though they often claim and seek to witness the existence of authentic cultural identities [24,25]. The main results obtained through observations and interviews will be presented and discussed

Methodology

Trends in Jewish Heritage Tourism

The Study Area

The Observations

The Main Cultural Elements

The Commercial Elements

The Jewish Community

Other Related Voices

Conclusions