engleski

Conflicting values, coinciding visions in host-tourist encounters

This poster highlights the results based upon an empirical study that compares and contrasts the perceptions of authenticity of visitors and residents within a multi cultural city of Pula, Istria. The research comprised a quantitative personally administered questionnaire, administered on site to domestic and international visitors and local residents. The rationale of this research was to identify what the critical components of authenticity are that make Pula authentic for visitors and residents. In this respect, participants were asked to consider a number of elements including building and street architecture, languages, cultural performances, natural setting, social contact etc. The city’s discursive location, as part of the bilingual border region of Istria, with a significant population of Italian nationality and other ethnic groups from the Balkan area, and a social memory that is linked to the socialist Yugoslavia, Italian and Austro-Hungarian past, creates a complex social context with multiple imaginaries and understandings of what it means to live in Pula. We examine the representation of the city in the mind of its residents and visitors, and the relation of this to the requirements of branding and its actual tourism promo- ti on. The findings of this study indicate a tension between coinciding and conflicting visions of the city from which people construct and politicize a sense of place. They also raise several issues in terms of its management and promotion, given that the single elements may be perceived differently by different segments.

anthropology; authenticity; host-tourist encounters

nije evidentirano