Experience economy and authenticity in the heritage tourism sector: A multiple-dimensional approach

The current research has paid limited attention to the significant interplay among the concepts of perceived authenticity, the experience economy, and tourism satisfaction. This study aims to establish a comprehensive theoretical framework to examine the mechanism relationships among them. Perceived authenticity was expected to have positive direct and indirect effects on tourists' entertainment, esthetics, education, and escapism experience (i.e., the experience economy) and satisfaction, and heritage tourists' experience economy was hypothesized to influence their satisfaction. Moreover, this study explores the mediating effect of the experience economy on perceived authenticity and satisfaction. This study used structural equation modeling to evaluate questionnaire survey data from 360 Chinese heritage tourists. The results show that tourists' perceived authenticity of heritage sites is an important antecedent that significantly enhances heritage tourism entertainment (R² = 0.141), esthetics (R² = 0.349), education (R² = 0.283), and escapism (R² = 0.230) experience and promotes satisfaction (R² = 0.650). Authenticity reflects culture, history or environment, thereby enhancing participants' emotional resonance, identification and satisfaction. In the experience economy framework, authenticity is not only sensory stimulation but also creates an immersive experience with "reality" through dimensions such as entertainment, esthetics, education and escapism. Therefore, this study clarifies the functional relationship between the research concepts and provides theoretical and practical significance for the development of heritage tourism and its competitive management strategies.