Negotiating authenticity in Uzbekistan’s community-based tourism: a thematic analysis of cultural performance and adaptation

Community-based tourism (CBT) has emerged as a transformative model for sustainable tourism development. However, limited research focuses on how authenticity is negotiated within post-Soviet Central Asian contexts. This study employs thematic analysis to investigate the construction and negotiation of authenticity in Uzbekistan’s emerging CBT sector. Data were generated through 10 semi-structured stakeholder interviews and 150 TripAdvisor reviews. Three interconnected themes emerged from the analysis, including the nature of authentic experiences, negotiation strategies, and adaptation mechanisms for authenticity maintenance. The findings suggest that authenticity is not a static attribute but rather evolves through embodied cultural practices, inter-generational knowledge transmission, and spatial contexts. By introducing the concept of “warm authentication,” this study identifies a middle ground between institutional and grassroots validation processes, wherein communities actively navigate their position on the authentication spectrum through hybrid innovation models. The research offers valuable insights into how institutional contexts shape authenticity negotiations and provides practical implications for advancing sustainable CBT development.