The construction of literary tourism site

This paper explores the approach to the construction of literary tourism site from the perspective of authenticity which is a keyword in heritage tourism. Since MacCannell (1973, 1976) introduced the concept of authenticity into studies of tourism motivations and experiences in 1970s, the various notions of tourism authenticity can be summarized into four types of theories - objective authenticity, constructive authenticity, postmodern authenticity and existential authenticity. They have different attitudes to the authenticity of tourist experiences (or authentic experiences) and the authenticity of toured objects. By comparing these four theories, the paper reveals that the theory of constructive authenticity which emphasizes the authenticity of toured objects as well as the tourist experience is more likely to underpin the development of a literary tourism site as, both, fact and fiction are involved in literary tourism. Then it demonstrates the application of the constructive authenticity theory through a case study - the planning of “Wang Zengqi Water Region Folk-custom Theme Park” in Jieshou, China. In approach to the construction of this literary site, a part of Herbert’s circuit of construction of heritage places was adopted (Herbert, 2001), especially illustrating the construction of “text”, and proposes “poetic tourism” as an object for literary tourism destinations to pursue