Perceived Authenticity in Sport Tourism: A Focus on Heritage Sporting Events

Consumers seek authenticity in experiential consumption, such as tourism and sports. Practitioners promote local heritage and sport events to attract visitors. However, this commodification of local culture creates a dilemma: tourism marketing shapes authenticity to meet tourists’ expectations, while local residents maintain unchanged views of their culture. This conflict highlights the challenge of balancing preservation with the risks of distorting traditions through staged authenticity. Addressing the dilemma requires understanding how tourists and locals perceive authenticity in heritage sporting events.
This cumulative dissertation includes three research: a literature review and two empirical studies. The literature review identifies research gaps and formulates research questions for the dissertation. Based on the Experiential Consumption Model as the overarching theory, the dissertation responds to three questions: (1) Are there differences in the perceived authenticity of heritage sporting events between residents and tourists? (2) What factors determine the perceived authenticity of heritage sporting events? and (3) What outcomes result from the perceived authenticity of heritage sporting events? The quantitative data collection was conducted in Sumo Tournaments in Japan.
The results highlight that tourists perceive higher authenticity than residents, due to their limited prior knowledge and experience, which simplifies their judgment. In contrast, residents employ a more critical perspective based on their accumulated consumption capital. These findings underscore the role of consumption capital (e.g., prior knowledge) in shaping authenticity perceptions. Moreover, tourists’ perceived authenticity is also found to enhance experiential outcomes like cross-cultural understanding and word-of-mouth intention, mediated by positive emotions. While tourists’ judgments may lack critical depth, their sporting experiences foster subjective personal growth, emphasizing the potential of heritage sporting events to promote cultural understanding.
The dissertation provides theoretical, methodological, and practical implications. Theoretically, the findings challenge the assumption of universal authenticity judgments, highlighting the diverse perceptions of tourists and locals. Methodologically, the quantitative approach contrasts with the qualitative focus of previous research, enabling statistical comparisons of perceived authenticity between tourists and local residents. Practically, the findings offer actionable insights for addressing authenticity dilemmas in heritage sporting events, emphasizing the importance of engaging diverse stakeholders to balance cultural preservation and tourism development with sports.