The notion of authenticity arises in tourism research in two ways: In theory, as a contentious, complicated and disputed construct; empirically, as a recurrent theme in accounts of tourist experiences of place and culture and as a quality of tourists' experiences. This duality creates tension over the utility of authenticity in research and theory. We review recent literature on authenticity within tourism scholarship –and more generally– and propose a partial resolution of this tension through demystifying the concept. We do this by highlighting its embeddedness in the activity of both research and tourism. That is, we conclude that authenticity can shed its problematic dualism by understanding how it is used in theorising and the activities of tourism.

真实性的概念在旅游研究中以两种方式出现：从理论上讲，它是一个有争议，复杂而有争议的结构；从经验上讲，这是考虑到地方和文化的游客体验以及游客体验质量的一个经常性主题。这种双重性在研究和理论中对真实性的实用性产生了张力。我们回顾了旅游学学术界（以及更一般而言）真实性的最新文献，并提出了通过对这一概念进行神秘化来部分解决这种紧张局势的建议。我们通过突出其在研究和旅游活动中的嵌入性来做到这一点。也就是说，我们得出结论，通过了解真实性如何在理论上和旅游活动中使用，真实性可以摆脱其有问题的二元性。