Evolving authenticity into the magical realm of fantasy-based third-order simulacra

The chapter argues that in an increasingly magical era that also dwells more on the permeability of the fake and the real, authenticity needs to evolve to embrace the imagination. The purpose of this chapter is therefore to re-appraise authenticity in the context of contemporary tourism studies by viewing it through the lens of the postmodern concept of third-order simulacra of Baudrillard. Third-order simulacra merge categories of real and fake, or actual and imagined because they are based on narratives drawn from the imagination and fantasy. This does not make authenticity an irrelevant notion. Instead, the chapter hypothesises that even the most fantastical of third-order simulacra induce authentication practices and rituals in tourists. The study explores different types of third-order simulacra in tourism, including those designed to authenticate fantasy by rooting their narratives in site-specific local folklore. Simulated authenticity also takes the form of historical references that give the origins of fantasy a provenance and plausibility. The chapter also expands the definition of simulacra beyond overtly commercial man-made attractions and objects to incorporate unmarked natural literary geographies and the spatial events of cultural geography. For example, some tourists are shown to apprehend landscapes with no connection to fantasy texts as fairytale spaces. In other words, the world becomes a simulacrum. These more imaginative forms of authentication allow for a greater degree of ambiguity, inter-subjectivity, uncanniness and metamorphosis as a lived part of tourism. The conclusion argues for the continued relevance of authenticity in tourism studies, not least because of the imaginative awakening in tourists of a magical sensibility that embraces the nuances of simulated authenticity and the extraordinary in the ordinary.