An Autoethnographic Reflection: Western Elitism in Late Capitalism

Abstract As tourism numbers continue to explode globally due to burgeoning middle class incomes in Asia as well as continually more fluid international communication technologies and transport, tourism scholars scramble to keep up with outmoded theory grounded in Western continental philosophy. A Western “traveler” often considers her/himself elite and even superior to mass tourists. “Travelers” seek alternative experiences in authentic spaces. In an effort to understand this market, tourism scholars have spent almost half of a century defining and characterizing the pursuit of authenticity; yet this scholarship has been homogeneously Western. In this chapter, we take a giant step back to question what provokes Western tourists to seek authenticity – and puzzle those who do not.