When many (western) tourists are asked why they stay in the old part of the city and don’t go to the new part, they will look at bit suspicious at you and answer: “But no, that’s not the real Middle East. It’s not what we are looking for."
In the hunt for the authentic, the ‘real’ is the old. The ‘new’ does not fit into, what the tourist wants and become labeled as 'not real'.