Answering the call: narratives of authenticity, identity, and connection in ‘wellness tourism’ advertising

Wellness tourism represents a powerful intersection between the trillion-dollar tourism industry and the trillion-dollar wellness industry. Central to wellness tourism discourses is the assumption that wellbeing is enhanced through authentic experiences and objects. This narrative formulation rests on the well-worn trope of modernity, tying into a set of binary oppositions between inauthentic/authentic, here/there, now/then, primitive/modern, and pure/tainted. Drawing on specific examples from tourism advertising in the Pacific, this chapter examines how these discourses tie into the narrative construction of wellbeing. It argues that this narrative of wellness rests on the well-worn trope of modernity which creates and reinforces problematic assumptions about both Western tourists and Indigenous hosts. On the one hand, the modern subject to whom wellbeing tourism seeks to cater is cast as always-already lacking in wellbeing. Insidiously, this suggests a moral imperative for perpetual self-care (and the continual consumption of wellness products). By contrast, Indigenous hosts are framed as authentic examples of pre-capitalist purity and ecological nobleness, which cast them as outside of the capitalist economy, and content with few material needs. This chapter finds that the narrative constructions of host and tourist represent seemingly contradictory—but ultimately coherent—facets of the neoliberal agenda.