Visitor attitudes to authenticity at a literary tourist destination. TETLEY, Sarah Available from the Sheffield Hallam University Research Archive (SHURA) at: http://shura.shu.ac.uk/3465/ A Sheffield Hallam University thesis This thesis is protected by copyright which belongs to the author. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author. When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given. 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Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 Visitor Attitudes to Authenticity at a Literary Tourist Destination Sarah Tetley A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of Sheffield Hallam University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy November 1998 Abstract Cultural tourism is assuming ever greater significance, and this study examines one particular form of this tourism whose main resource is the literary work of authors. Literary tourist destinations are places visited because of their associations with books or other literary outputs and with their authors. Such destinations are becoming increasingly popular as visitor attractions. This research examines the visitors to one well-known literary tourist destination. It examines the motivations, experiences and attitudes of the visitors as they relate to the authenticity of the destination. Although literary tourism is a significant part of both the cultural and tourism industries, it is very largely under-researched. Most concentrates on the historical emergence of literary tourist destinations. The present examination uses a case study of tourists visiting the literary tourism area of Haworth, West Yorkshire, England which was home to the literary Bronte family. The nature of the links specifically between literature, authenticity and tourism remain under-researched, with little sustained attention given to questions surrounding the authenticity of literary tourist destinations. Hence, the case study investigates visitor attitudes to the character of authenticity at the destination. Authenticity is evaluated explicitly as a social construct, and the research also questions how tourists respond to the signs or markers of literary connections. In this way, the research adds to the understanding of literary tourist destinations, visitor attitudes to authenticity, and their perceptions of, and responses to, signs as markers of authenticity. The case study is based on a social survey which comprises three different semi­ structured questionnaires. While these surveys shared standard questions on motivations and authenticity, each had a distinct focus, which facilitated the assessment of visitor attitudes to a wide range of potential tourism products in the literary tourist destination. This research adds to methodological sophistication in tourism research by its innovative use of visual stimuli as a projection technique, with this method rarely being used in tourism studies. Verbal stimuli were less likely to be appropriate to explore the signs that visitors use as markers of authenticity. Consequently, photographs including key potential signs were used as a stimulus to gain insights into visitor responses. The results indicate that the literary tourist destination of Haworth attracts a broad range of visitor types, and that the different types of visitors differed in their motivations and experiences. It was found that different visitors were motivated to visit Haworth by the desire to learn and by the desire to have fun to varying degrees. Such motivations affected the extent to which they were concerned about the authenticity of the various aspects of the literary tourism product. In a similar vein, the empirical data suggests that visitors varied in the extent to which they considered their experience of the destination had been authentic, and differences also emerged between the features of the literary place that visitors used as markers of authenticity or of inauthenticity. Acknowledgements I would personally like to thank everyone who has been involved in the completion of this piece of research. Your help and support were invaluable to me. I would especially like to thank my Director of Studies, Bill Bramwell, for all his advice, expertise and patience throughout my time at Sheffield Hallam University. HALLAM Utoi,, Contents page Abstract i Acknowledgements ii List o f Figures ix List o f Tables x 1 Introduction 1 1.0 The Study 1 1.1 Aims of the Research 2 1.2 Tourism Products 4 1.2.1 Heritage tourism and cultural tourism 5 1.2.2 Literary tourism 10 1.3 Tourism and Authenticity 13 1.4 Overview and Synopsis 18 2 Literature Review 23 2.0 Introduction 23 2.1 The Development of Literary Tourist Destinations 24 2.1.1 Literature as an influence on the image of place 24 2.1.2 Literature as an influence on landscape tastes 26 2.1.3 Literature as an influence on ‘touristic styles’ 28 2.1.4 Literature as a motivator for tourists to visit 30 2.1.5 The deliberate use of literature and other media to stimulate tourism for economic gain 31 2.1.6 Other media types 32 iii 2.2 Tourist Attitudes to Authenticity 34 2.2.1 Conceptualisation of authenticity 34 2.2.1.1 Authentic as primitive 3 5 2.2.1.2 Authentic as a ‘social construct’ o f ‘modern’ society 36 2.2.1.3 Authentic as a ‘social construct’ or ‘negotiated construct’ 36 2.2.2 Theories of authenticity 39 2.2.2.1 The Boorstin-MacCannell debate 39 2.2.22 Cohen’s typology of touristic situations 44 2.2.3 Authenticity and literary tourism 50 2.3 Tourist Responses to Signs as Markers of Authenticity 54 2.4 Tourist Types and Attitudes to Authenticity 66 Summary 72 3 Study Approach 76 3.0 Introduction 76 3.1 Research Hypotheses for this Study 77 3.2 Analytical Frameworks 80 3.2.1 Framework to distinguish between different types of visitors 81 3.2.2 Framework to relate motivations for visits to concern for authenticity 83 3.2.3 Framework of visitor attitudes to the authenticity of tourism products within the literary tourist destination 85 3.3 Haworth as a Case Study Location 87 Summary 89 iv 4 Methodology 92 4.0 Introduction 92 4.1 The Research Instrument 93 4.1.1 Standard questions 100 4.1.2 Visitor attitudes to the authenticity of the contemporary features of the literary tourist destination 105 4.1.3 Visitor attitudes to the authenticity of the presentation of the literary connection to the tourist destination 108 4.1.4 Visitor perceptions of, and responses to, signs as markers of authenticity at the literary tourist destination 111 4.1.5 The survey sites 117 4.2 Implementation of the Research Instrument 118 4.2.1 Research assistants 118 4.2.2 The sampling procedure 119 4.2.3 The pilot study 121 4.2.4 Statistical analysis 122 4.3 The Profile of Visitors 123 4.3.1 Normal place of residence 124 4.3.2 Day visitors and staying visitors 127 4.3.3 Sex of the visitors 128 4.3.4 Age profile of the visitors 128 4.3.5 Employment situation of the visitors 129 4.3.6 Socio-economic profile of the visitors 131 Summary 133 Visitor Motivation and Concern for Authenticity 135 5.0 Introduction 135 5.1 Visitor Motivations 136 5.1.1 Interest in the Bronte family prior to visiting Haworth 137 5.1.2 Importance of the Bronte family in the decision to visit Haworth 138 5.1.3 Type of visitor 139 5.1.4 Entertainment and education motivations to visit Haworth 142 5.1.5 Main purpose for visiting Haworth 143 5.1.6 Motivations of literary and non-literary visitors 146 5.1.7 Motivations of allocentric and psychocentric visitors 148 v 5.2 Concern for Authenticity 149 5.2.1 Concern to gain an historically accurate understanding of the history of the village of Haworth 150 5.2.2 Concern to gain an historically accurate understanding of the Bronte family 152 5.2.3 Concern to gain an historically accurate understanding of the Bronte novels 154 5.2.4 Concern for authenticity among literary and non-literary visitors 157 5.2.5 Concern for authenticity among allocentrics and psychocentrics 159 5.2.6 Visitor motivation and concern for authenticity 160 Discussion and Conclusion 165 6 Visitor Attitudes to the Authenticity of the Contemporary Features of Haworth 168 6.0 Introduction 168 6.1 Commercialisation and the village of Haworth 170 6.2 ‘Fact’ o r ‘Fiction’? 182 6.3 Educational Insights from Haworth 193 Discussion and Conclusion 197 7 Visitor Attitudes to the Authenticity of the Presentation of the Literary Connection at the Bronte Parsonage Museum 199 7.0 Introduction 199 7.1 Expectations prior to visiting the Bronte Parsonage Museum 200 7.2 Commercialisation