The difficulty with this use of the concept of “authenticity” in tourism studies is that it is a philosophical concept which has been uncritically introduced into sociological analysis. Furthermore, in tourism studies, the concept is used to characterize a criterion of evaluation used by the modern tourist as observer. The question, whether the “tourees” observed by the tourist at all possess such a concept, and if so, which traits of their own culture they consider to be “authentic” is rarely, if ever raised. Finally, the social analyst is tacitly assumed to understand the tourist’s quest for “authenticity” because both belong to the modern world; they both appear to conceive of “authenticity” in similar, unproblematic terms. “Authenticity” thus takes up a given or “objective” quality attributable by moderns to the world “out there.” The only apparent difference between the tourist and the social analyst is that the latter is more circumspect than the former. He is therefore assumed to be able to penetrate beyond appearances, and discover the deception of “staged authenticity” (MacCannell 1973) perpetrated by the tourees, or the tourist establishment. The unsuspecting tourist, who is less sophisticated and knowledgeable than the analyst, is assumed to be taken in by such prevarications. It then follows that, if the tourist had the analyst’s debunking knowledge, he would reject the “staged authenticity” of the sights as contrived and lacking in authenticity. MacCannell and others who adopted his conceptual framework did not raise the possibility that the tourist and social analyst may conceive of authenticity in different terms.