... staged performance situation, the terms "front" and "back" describe actual ways in which the social roles are enacted. This search for authenticity by the tourist is seen as a compensatory process as tourists seek to recreate structures, authentic lifestyles that modernity has smashed. What MacCannell called "staged authenticity", a way of fooling the observers can, and usually does, take place within the tourism industry: the people being toured understand the tourists desire to see real life, and obligingly manufacture false "back regions" to satisfy it. In contrast to MacCannell, who believes that tourists desire authenticity, Feifer (Urry, 1990) argues that tourists understand that it is impossible to have an authentic tourist experience and in fact enjoy inauthentic activities. Urry discusses Feifer's theory on "playfulness". Play, she argues is a main feature of postmodernism and has been incorporated into numerous activities. Play has allowed for a de-differentiation between work and leisure. We ...

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