Sustainability of authentic cultural tourist setting: Traditional Turkish house interiors

In many countries tourism is the major sector influencing the sustainability of a cultural setting. A touristic setting is a place constructed for pleasurable experiences. In cultural touristic settings, the feeling of pleasure is conveyed through cultural attractions that involve cultural identity in accordance with cultural meanings. The study aims to evaluate the interior environments of authentic settings. The majority of cultural heritage settings are reconstructed for touristic visits. In this reconstruction process multifaceted problems occur. Thus, reconstructing a space influences both functional and the socio-cultural aspects of an interior. Cultural motivation of a tourist has many different dimensions; from object based authenticity to existential authenticity. In a cultural setting the interior itself becomes the object that is exhibited. This is an object that has the function of both exhibiting the cultural heritage as well as serving for exhibition. This is a dilemma; that the space is the stage for tourists along with also being an authentic object itself. This process can be named as Staged Authenticity which is a concept introduced by Dean Mc Cannell. Through staged authenticity many problems occur namely; in representing the true meaning; identity of both intangible and tangible dimension of a cultural heritage. Representing the authenticity is a multiphase problem in sustainability of a specific culture. This study focuses on the authenticity dimensions of an interior space. The study aims to set this interior design problem in a context and to consider ways of sustainability the authenticity value of a setting from the point of both the tangible and the intangible heritage. As a case, traditional Turkish house interiors that are converted to restaurants are selected.