Cinematic tourists: forms of authenticity in consumers’ reception of the Moroccan film industry

Cinematic realities creatively produce imagined scenic environments that constitute seemingly ‘authentic’ destinations that can attract tourists’ attention. Not all is as it seems, however; hence we ask, “How can paradoxes of authenticity fuel consumers’ reception of products of the film industry?”. We use paradox theory to address this question. Virtual ethnography is used to capture tourists’ perception of multifaceted contexts of authenticity in the Moroccan film industry. We categorize authenticity as multiform (real, fake and fake-authentic) through film case analysis. We reveal and discuss three paradoxical forms of authenticity: (i) authentic reality; (ii) merging fake reality; and (iii) genuinely authentically fake. Our findings highlight that, despite a fake reality, tourists interplay fakery with authenticity, transforming the imitation into something more original than the source.