Storytelling and authenticity in cultural tourism. Case study: amazon park

Cultural tourism is the fastest growing branch of tourism on a global scalein the last few decades. Both storytelling and authenticity have played a role towards diversifyingthe product and have been gathering focus in the academical world. This paperwill take a look on the effect of storytelling on visitors and how that may change theirview on the authenticity of the tourist product by examining a specific site – the AmazonPark, located in Samsun, Türkiye. The data was gathered at place, during field work, witha mixed approach of quantitive and qualitive research. Making use of questioners, interviewsand observations, with the help of tools like SWOT analysis and Ansoff’s matrix, theresults show that storytelling enhances the authenticity for visitors and that the two canbe combined as a resource, that can be in use in cultural tourism, especially in the case ofattractions and tourist destinations.