PERCEIVED AUTHENTICITY AND ASSOCIATED TOURIST BEHAVIORS: A COMPARATIVE STUDY BETWEEN SLOW TOURISM AND LEISURE TOURISM IN BUCOVINA
Ionuț-Marius REPEDE1
1 Faculty of Geography, Babeş-Bolyai University, 5-7 Clinicilor Street, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, e-mail: ionut.repede@stud.ubbcluj.ro
ABSTRACT. – Perceived Authenticity and Associated Tourist Behaviors: A Comparative Study Between Slow Tourism and Leisure Tourism in Bucovina. Contemporary destination management frequently relies on a transactional model, assuming that high customer satisfaction automatically triggers proactive responsible behaviors. This research challenges this foundational premise by examining how dimensions of perceived authenticity dictate tourist outcomes across two polarizing experiential profiles in Bucovina, Romania: active immersion on the Via Transilvanica trail and passive recreation in traditional leisure resorts. Analyzing data from 80 respondents through a sequential MANOVA and PLS-SEM approach, the study uncovers a distinct decoupling of tourist responsibility from commercial satisfaction. While existential and objective authenticity directly enhance satisfaction, responsible behavior is uniquely driven by existential and constructive dimensions. Strikingly, postmodern authenticity serves as a significant deterrent to responsible intentions, proving that high commodification transforms visitors into detached spectators who view the territory as a disposable product. Furthermore, satisfaction fails to mediate any structural paths, illustrating that civic engagement is not a reciprocal exchange for comfort but a direct consequence of intrinsic, self-reflective connections with the landscape. The study provides critical strategic implications for regional policymakers and Destination Management Organizations (DMOs), arguing that regional sustainability must be engineered through transformational experiential design rather than standard satisfaction metrics.
Keywords: perceived authenticity, Via Transilvanica, satisfaction, slow tourism,
responsible behavior, Bucovina.