What Is a Transformative Authentic Experience?:

This study examines how authentic tourism experiences can serve as catalysts for personal transformation.Building on a theoretical review of 17 empirical studies published between 2000 and 2024, it analyzes the relationship between authenticity and transformation from four perspectives: 1) relational practices, 2) negative experiences, 3) future orientation, and 4) temporality and recursiveness.The findings suggest that authenticity should not be understood as a fixed attribute or external "realness," but rather as a dynamic process constructed through embodied, emotional, and narrative engagement.Authentic experiences enable travelers to reframe identity and values by confronting uncertainty, reinterpreting past experiences, and envisioning ideal future selves.Conceptualizing authenticity as a structural condition for transformation provides new insights into the mechanisms of transformative tourism.Theoretically, this reframing shifts the focus from authenticity as perception to authenticity as an evolving, generative framework for self-change.Practically, it suggests that destinations should move beyond staging superficial realism and instead design experiences that encourage reflection, relational encounters, memory making, and narrative coconstruction.By highlighting authenticity as both a structural and a dynamic process, this study contributes to advancing the conceptual foundations of transformative tourism and offers strategic implications for experience design and long-term destination value.