ABSTRACT
Despite metrics and data available online, travel journalists need to develop other ways to know their audiences’ expectations when planning their travels. Authenticity in travel experiences has motivated much of the tourism industry over the last century. This chapter suggests that journalists are not so much engaged with providing specific information towards defining what is or what isn’t authentic, but in providing context and guidance that empowers tourists to achieve their own authentic experience. At the heart of these studies is the change from passive news consumers to more active participants in the media. Audiences are making decisions, interacting with information providers, and continuing conversations on social media; and journalists need to take note. Mediating some concept of authenticity is ultimately an impossible task, but writers can help orient readers in a general direction or inspire them, to nuance their travels in true post-tourist fashion, to look critically at, but beyond, more touristy experiences. First, journalists can interact with audiences to understand what authentic means to them. They might accept a watchdog role, helping consumers identify erroneous information on social media, in order to demonstrate that they are experts, engaged with the tourism industry.
