Authenticity and the Construction and Perception of Identity in Tourism Apps

Tourism communication is a dialogic process whereas the relationship between the industry, the tourist and the locals has changed in the last years. In particular, through apps the traveller participates in the creation and sharing of data and services. This paper is two-fold: it aims at marking the features of apps as a new web genre, and at presenting it as a tourism tool, employed to convey identity and authenticity. The analysis will take into account both texts and images, underlining the synergy they create in pursuing the tourist objective. The cross-cultural dimension of tourism appears self-evident. Considering tourism as a cross-cultural dialogic process, on the one hand we find the traveller/tourist who explores new territories and new spaces, enthusiastic to leave and conquer them, to encounter and to discover new worlds, new lan- guages and new discourses. On the other hand, there are the promoters of tourist destinations who accompany them throughout this discovery by re- vealing peculiar aspects and patterns of their cultural identity. Whereas in the past the communication flow from the industry to both the visitor and the visited was unidirectional and almost monological, today it has become more democratic and egalitarian. Power relationships have changed and all three participants in the tourist communication can act and counter- act, in a dialogue which Dann (2012) even calls trialogue. Therefore, the role of the traveller has changed, from a mere feedback pro- vider to a real content creator. Anyone can be involved in content creation regardless of a predetermined rigid hierarchy, from the tourist industry to the visitor. This matches the organizational principles of social communities and of the rules of Web 2.0, considered as a tool to engage with other users, sharing with them data and services through an easily accessible app located between the provider and the user. This paper aims at investigating tourist communication through apps. First of all, it will highlight the characteristics of apps as a new web genre.2 Then, a multimodal analysis will be carried out, focusing on the role of language and images in authenticity and identity construction, bearing in mind that apps bring the communication producer, the visitor and the visited much closer to one another.In connecting genre analysis to apps, adaptation is needed, in terms of the properties peculiar to computer-mediated discourse, in terms of purpose (made up of different purposes, the ultimate goal of the analysis), style (dif- ferent moves through hyperlinks), structure (different sequences by different users) and semiotic mix (media), grain, degree of interactivity, multimodality.3 From a sociological point of view, the tourist experience is mediated by per- sonal, digital and mobile technology. Tourism can be experienced through the online process of mediatisation, through images and narratives accessible any- where and anytime.4 As a consequence, the concept of being away has shifted, as people now have the possibility to always be connected. Moreover, tourism experiences are structured by web-enabled mobile devices which have, in a certain way, redirected the tourist gaze, becoming the mediator between the traveller and the tourism destination. While in the past guidebooks had a sort of maternal function, they were a companion to the journey experience, nowadays they have been replaced by more apps considered more reliable, comprehensive and updated. The tour- ist gaze has moved from social and shared to personalised and individual, tailor-made experiences of culture and landscapes.5 These may appear more superficial and devoid of emotion, as the app replaces, in a certain way, com- municating with the locals for information and directions. What used to be unknown, and thus adventurous, being an essential ingredient for a successful tourism experience, has disappeared thanks to the availability and usability of any type of information provided by the app. However, these experiences can be shared on social networks, making the tourist experience social again.