“LET’S GET REAL” PRACTICALISING AUTHENTICITY FOR HOSPITALITY EXPERIENCE DESIGN AND MANAGEMENT -AN EXPLORATION OF AUSTRALIAN LUXURY LODGES
Creators: name: Manfreda, Anita
Publisher: name: Torrens University Australia
Year: 2024
Subjects: classificationCode: 350402
subject: Hospitality management

description: In the shift from a service to an experience-intensive economy, hospitality, as part of the broader tourism umbrella, is conceived as an industry aimed at creating involvement, intensity, energy, and the ability for tourists to be affected emotionally, physically, and intellectually (Clough, 2007). One such way to affect tourists is through the creation of authentic experiences. Authenticity, a mystifying and controversial concept, holds a significant place and theoretical weight in the broad tourism literature. Since MacCannell (1973) and Cohen (1979b), scholars have attempted to understand and theoretically conceptualise authenticity. However, despite the vast body of knowledge written on authenticity, understanding how authenticity is operationalised remains underexplored (Kolar &amp; Zabkar, 2010; Le et al., 2019). In the accommodation context, authentic experiences have only been studied in particular settings, such as homestays and peer-to-peer accommodation, thus lacking a broader view of what constitutes authentic experiences and how these are created in other commercial hospitality settings. Given the crucial role of authenticity in luxury products and service consumption already highlighted in the marketing and management literature, it is surprising that authentic experiences have yet to be a subject of scholarly investigation in luxury accommodation contexts. However, given the growing shift from materialistic to experiential luxury consumption, hospitality managers and marketers must understand the design, management, and marketing of authentic experiences. This research was developed to explore the uprising customers’ longing for authenticity in luxury accommodation experiences and the operational implications of designing, staging, managing, and marketing these experiences. We chose to select a specific study context, luxury lodges, for the significant attention they have and continue to receive from media and consumers. Luxury lodges are considered the emblem of “experiential luxury” in commercial accommodation and are closely associated with creating authentic experiences. To date, research in this area has received limited space in scholarly literature. In this research, we adopt an empirical approach to authenticity, exploring its practical implications for experience design and management. In doing so, we utilise a consumer-based authenticity approach (Kolar &amp; Zabkar, 2010) to better understand how authentic experiences are staged, managed, and marketed by luxury lodge hosts and how these are perceived and evaluated by guests. The thesis was, thus, guided by three interrelated research objectives that enabled us to progressively peel the conceptual layers of these authentic experiences. Adopting a constructivist paradigm and a qualitative multiple-case study methodology, we employed high engagement research techniques, such as photo-elicited dyadic interviews, shadowing, and iv participant observations to address our research objectives and gain a comprehensive understanding of authentic experiences from multiple perspectives. This thesisis structured as a series of papers. Through the employment of a meta-ethnographic synthesis methodology, Paper 1 proposes an initial framework for the study of luxury accommodation experiences and highlights theoretical and methodological gaps that were subsequently investigated in the following papers. Integrating the methodological choices of this study presented in the introduction, Paper 2 provides a comprehensive evaluation of and framework for the implementation of the study, with specific attention to how high-engagement research methodologies are implemented and unfold during fieldwork, as well as the benefits and challenges in utilising such techniques for the study of tourism and hospitality experiences. Papers 3 and 4 report on the findings of the empirical study. Specifically, Paper 3 offers a holistic model of luxury lodge experience quality, with significant implications for theory and practice, and extends its significance beyond the luxury lodge context into the broader service marketing and management literature. Paper 4 explores the process of creation of authentic experiences in luxury lodges. It identifies how authentic experiences are, in essence, a negotiation between guests and hosts, with hosts shaping and managing an authentic experiential platform, and with guests authenticating their experiences, in turn, eliciting experiences of existential authenticity. The paper highly focuses on the role of hosts in managing authenticity perceptions through the employment of specific toolssuch as personalisation, collaboration, hospitableness, and storytelling, and the role of guests who authenticate their experiences through their bodies and minds. This thesis offers theoretical, methodological, and practical contributions. Theoretically, it adds to service marketing and management literature, specifically hospitality experience design and management, by providing a comprehensive model to understand authentic experiences in luxury lodges, what constitutes them, and how they are created and evaluated. Methodologically, the thesis advances qualitative research methods and practices by utilising innovative qualitative synthesis methods, adopting research principles and techniques that enhance engagement and participation throughout the research process, and reflecting on their use and relevance for tourism and hospitality experience research. Practically, the thesis provides significant implications for managers and marketers of luxury lodges and more broadly luxury accommodation providers on how to design, manage, and market authentic experiences. It highlights the significant role played by luxury accommodation providers in shaping and managing guests’ authenticity perceptions.