Whilst several tourism scholars have deconstructed the notion of authenticity on
heritage environments either from a theoretical or empirical perspective, few, if any, have
undertaken a close look at Pine and Gilmore’s (2007) genres of authenticity, namely natural,
original, exceptional, referential, and influential. It is the aim of this study to overcome past
research negligence by rendering the appeal of the five genres of authenticity in the case of
Mount Athos, a religious heritage, or in other words, pilgrimage landscape located in northern
Greece, which can be considered as the last surviving byzantine complex of monasteries.
Based on the findings of the study, this paper links the five genres of authenticity with past
research on pilgrimage experience. Keywords: genres of authenticity, religious heritage experience,
pilgrimage landscape, Christian orthodoxy.
Cyprus University of Technology
