Spuriousness and tourism

Abstract

Papson, Stephen, Spuriousness and Tourism: Politics of Two Canadian Provincial Government. Annals of Tourism Research 1981, VIII(2):220–235. Using Boorstein's and MacCannell's notions of pseudo-events and of staged authenticity, this paper explores the process by which socio-cultural reality takes on the quality of spuriousness. Theoretically, it is argued that reality is spurious to the extent that it is imposed from sources outside of the everyday existence of members of a community. Empirically, the policies of the provincial governments of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island are analyzed. It is argued that tourist marketing, routing and zoning, creating community events, and organizing historical sites are a form imposing a layer of reality over the everyday which is spurious.