Jewish Heritage Tourism in Krakow: Authenticity and Commodification Issues
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Abstract
Tourism destinations located within rich and complex cultural contexts tend to offer a wide range of different experiences to visitors, spanning from standardized to more alternative ones. The quest for authenticity is central in the construction of tourism image and business, but easily raises questions related to appropriation, commercialization and trivialization. This study focuses on Jewish heritage tourism, a niche segment gradually turning into a mass tourism experience, through a qualitative research made in Krakow, Poland. Jewish-themed tourism in the area has gone through intense growth in spite of its dwindling Jewish population. As a consequence, the representation and consumption of the related heritage mostly occurs independently from the Jewish community itself and shows clear signs of commercial exploitation. The study results show that, in spite of the issues related to simplified narratives and staged practices, commodification, with its partial and functional reconstruction of the past, does not interfere with the religious or secular activities of the Jewish community, which is more pragmatically focused on present-day life.
Topics
Jewish Community Jewish Heritage Jewish Culture Jewish Neighbourhoods Main Topic: Culture and Heritage Tourism
Genre
Geographic Coverage
Copyright Info
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
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Volume/Issue
2(1)
Page Number / Article Number
140-152
DOI
Link
Link to article including link to pdf, Jewish Heritage Tourism in Krakow: Authenticity and Commodification Issues
Bibliographic Information
Jewish Heritage Tourism in Krakow: Authenticity and Commodification Issues. 2021: 140-152. https://archive.jpr.org.uk/10.3390/tourhosp2010008
