ABSTRACT
The fair tourism operators' encounter project does appear to be elaborated in opposition to mass tourism. It is a 'genuine meeting' which is offered, in opposition to the non-encounter or to the fake encounter in mass tourism. They first hypothesize that fair tourism experiences mainly take place under a ritual structure that is no more conducive to experience strangeness than what is called mass tourism. This authenticity code is based on a culturalist illusion. By culturalist illusion, it refers to the conjunction of at least a couple of beliefs that lead people. In this context, where tourism neither deconstructs nor reorders the life of the local community, visitors can get to know an authentic culture. The actual encounters tend to be limited to the possibility of the tourists recognizing in the other the manifestation of a typical culture and of feeling an enchantment in that recognition.
