Sovereign Hill in Ballarat is a classic example of 'staged Essay

Sovereign Hill in Ballarat is a classic example of 'staged authenticity, outline some of the challenges that the tourism operator faces in trying to commercial - Essay Example Sovereign Hill is a multidimensional attraction that depicts the Australian town of Ballarat, around the mid-nineteenth century, about ten years after the discovery of gold in 1851. The attraction offers an excellent example of a â€Å"living† museum, â€Å"presenting the mining and social history of Australia’s gold rush era† (Buhalis & Costa, 2005: 209). The township is spread over sixty acres of land, has around sixty buildings, 300 costumed staff, 200 costumed volunteers and around 40 horses. The gold rush museum promotes visitor participation and authentic experience through role playing, interactions with characters, and the buildings and artefacts. This is supported by a modern orientation centre which familiarizes visitors with the background of the gold rushes in the 1850s, with the help of audio and video. The tourist destination offers several interesting experiences including activities, events, festivals and a sound and light show â€Å"Blood on the Southern Cross† with spectacular lighting and special effects (Buhalis & Costa: 209). Sovereign Hill in Ballarat is a classic example of â€Å"staged authenticity†. This paper proposes to outline some of the challenges faced by the tourism operator in trying to commercialize the tourist destination, while at the same time attempting to maintain an authentic experience for the visitors. A tourist destination is not only a geographical place, it is an integration of products, services, natural resources, built environment, artificial elements and information that attracts a number of visitors to a place (Bieger: 8). The stakeholders are: actual and potential tourists, public administration, tourism operators, conductors of local private tourism activities, operators of non-local tourism activities and the host community. The main objective of tourism operators is the integration of different resources to provide facilities and activities based on policy. Tourism should â€Å"meet the needs of different