Constructing authenticity in coastal ecolodges: managerial narratives from Bushehr, Iran

Prior research on authenticity in tourism has been dominated by tourist-centric lenses, giving relatively limited attention to supply-side actors. Addressing this conceptual gap, the present study investigates managerial narratives of authenticity construction in the under-researched context of coastal ecolodges in Bushehr Province, southern Iran. Drawing on the concepts of constructive and staged authenticity, it analyses how owners and managers produce marketable ‘authentic’ experiences for their guests. The findings show that managerial authenticity work clusters around material place cues, home-like hospitality, narrative and ritual, selective adaptation and two-layering, experiential education, and context-bound constraints. The study contributes to authenticity debates by offering a supply-side conceptualisation of authenticity as an ongoing accomplishment along a continuum from constructive authenticity to operational soft staging, with potential slippage into staged display.