Sociocultural determinants of creative tourism

Tourism Management Perspectives 36, 2020

Although cultural tourists increasingly seek to experience cultural events actively and to directly engage in creative activities, empirical knowledge about the creative tourist remains limited. This study aims to characterize the motivations and profile of creative tourists. The data was collected through a survey of participants in creative tourism activities in Portugal developed by 40 pilot institutions of the CREATOUR project during 2017 and 2018, with 814 usable questionnaires collected and validated. The questionnaire had 30 questions and marked the first time this kind of research was conducted in Portugal. The questionnaire included questions on: the composition of their travel companions, their previous participation in a creative tourism experience, reasons for visiting the destination, their characterization of the creative tourism experience, an evaluation of their creative tourism experience, and their socio-demographic profile. Using a cluster analysis to analyse the data, three clusters were found: Novelty-Seekers, Knowledge and Skills Learners, and Leisure Creative-Seekers.

CREATOUR: Catalisando o turismo criativo em cidades de pequena dimensão e em áreas rurais, 2020

This is the English-language translation of the Introduction chapter of the book "CREATOUR: Catalisando o turismo criativo em cidades de pequena dimensão e em áreas rurais" [CREATOUR: Catalyzing creative tourism in small towns and rural areas], published by the University of Coimbra Press, results from the work carried out within the CREATOUR project. This research-and-application project involved five research centres and 40 organizations that designed and implemented creative tourism pilot projects in four regions of Portugal: Norte, Centro, Alentejo and Algarve. The CREATOUR project worked as a research and development phase, catalyzing a network of creative tourism promoters who worked on the design, planning, testing and implementation of creative tourism offers at the local level in small cities and rural areas across the country, while simultaneously connected at the national level. “Activating creative tourism in small cities and rural areas in Portugal: The CREATOUR research-and-application approach,” is available at: http://creatour.pt/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/livro-creatour_Introducao-EN-21x27-Digital.pdf

Journal of Spatial and Organizational Dynamics, 2019

This study sought to investigate the importance of cultural and creative tourism associated with 'celebrations' (i.e., festivais, festas, feiras and eventos [festivals, feasts, fairs and events]) in the Algarve region of Portugal. The resulting paper first discusses the significance of cultural and creative tourism and its interconnections with sustainable development in a region traditionally linked with 'sun and sea' tourism products. The methodological framework was a case study that focused on links between cultural and creative tourism and the dynamics of celebrations in 16 Algarve municipalities (concelhos municipais). The study was based on content analysis of data gathered with a questionnaire distributed to camara municipal (city council) culture and/or tourism responsibles from the 16 Algarve municipalities, namely, those (technicians) whose jobs are related to enhancing the attractiveness of the cultural resources associated with celebrations. The results reveal an increasing recognition of the importance of cultural patterns to municipals' tourism offers based on popular and everyday culture, which contribute to the Algarve's authentic identity and heterogeneous features.

2020

Over the last decades, tourism has experienced exponential growth, expansion and diversification, being considered one of the most important socio-economic sectors, an essential source of income and employment for many territories (e.g. Bellini et al. 2017; Romão and Nijkamp 2017; Weidenfeld 2018). In response to the concerns about the negative impacts of tourism and to improve the relationship between hosts and tourists, culture-based creativity is seen as a path to create competitive advantages and improve more sustainable practices in the tourism field. Therefore, many cities and regions have sought to reinvent themselves as creative tourist destinations, by encouraging synergies between tourism and the cultural and creative activities to foster the development of new products, experiences and markets (Delisle and Jolin 2007; Duxbury and Richards 2019; Richards and Wilson 2007). Despite the high attractiveness of large capitals and metropolises, small towns and rural areas can al...

Tourism for the 21 st Century - Proceedings of the CIT 2015 Editor: Vânia Costa – Instituto Politécnico do Cávado e do Ave Copyright: © IPCA - Instituto Politécnico do Cávado e do Ave , 2015

Creative tourism is seen as an alternative to the serial reproduction of culture and the massive consumption of cultural tourism. Cultural and creative events have been highlighted as strong strategies for tourism development in creative tourism literature. Postmodern tourists seek meaningful experiences through a closer contact with local communities and act as co-creators of the overall creative tourism experience. Festivals can offer the opportunity for such phenomena in direct or indirect ways. In creative tourism both intangible and tangible cultural assets can be (re)activated for tourism purposes and creative add ups can be included in these events. Three community based tourism festivals are analyzed in reference to creative tourism literature and cultural capital theory. These events are characterized and creative strategies are suggested. By offering specialized cultural activities, this will enhance the cultural capital of participants, planners, local communities and help to differentiate tourism supply in the region. This paper aims at contributing to the research and development of creative tourism in the central region of Portugal, mainly the Médio Tejo region, which embodies thirteen municipalities in the center of the country. Keywords: Creative tourism, Cultural capital, Creative festivals, Co-creation, Tourism experience.

Creative tourism: activating cultural resources and engaging creative travellers, 2021

A great diversity of definitions of creative tourists exist, ranging from those who refer to visitors of dance, art, or handicraft workshops, to those who include people who take up temporary artistic residences to practice their creative expression and develop their art forms. In recent decades, we have observed the emergence of a new generation of travellers. These tourists are increasingly seeking co-creation processes, leading to more relational forms of cultural tourism, and active participation in creative experiences. This study revolves around the answers of the participants in the questionnaire of CREATOUR. We found that creative tourism activities can attract travellers to a location: both domestic (76%) and international tourists (64%) indicated that the primary reason for visiting the locale was to participate in the creative tourism experience. This was an important finding for us given that the locations were small cities and rural areas and some were quite remote. The...

CREATOUR - Brief Project Overview CREATOUR is an incubator/demonstration and multidisciplinary research initiative, supporting collaborative research processes. The three-year project aims to connect the cultural/creative and tourism sectors through the development of an integrated research and application approach to catalyzing creative tourism in small cities and rural areas throughout Portugal. Creative tourism involves active learning experiences enabling self-expression and creative skill development, with a more extensive relationship between tourism and creative industries emerging, and with platforms making the distribution of this content possible. An essential feature in this process is the firm link of creativity to place and its embeddedness in the local milieu, promoting the visitor an immersion experience within the local culture and local institutions and generating economic and social added value to the region. CREATOUR involves five research centres working with a range of cultural/creative organizations and other stakeholders located in small cities across Portugal in the Norte, Centro, Alentejo and Algarve regions. CREATOUR's design builds on a twofold approach – theory and experimentation – which explicitly nurtures applied experimentation and the implementation of Pilots that diversify tourism offers and deepen connections between cultural/creative and tourism organizations in these areas.

2021

Sustainability

Creative tourism is a quite recent tourism segment that has been rapidly diffused all over the world. Nevertheless, studies on this segment were not concerned, until present, with the differences in gender intention, evaluation and the overall satisfaction regarding creative tourism activities. For that, this paper examines these three components from a gender perspective regarding the creative tourism activities developed by CREATOUR pilots in the northern region of mainland Portugal between 2017 and 2019. The methods used were quantitative in nature. Five hundred and ninety-five questionnaires were applied to the participants in the 45 creative tourism activities developed by the 10 pilot institutions selected to join the CREATOUR project (Creative Tourism Destination Development in Small Cities and Rural Areas). The questionnaire used consisted of 31 closed questions aimed at the profile, the motivations, the perception and the evaluation of activities by the participants. It use...

Because culture's role in tourism is key and usually the primary reason for visiting certain tourist destinations, the development of cultural tourism as a component of cultural economic development is important in that it requires a destination to sell its culture and creativity to the intended market. This paper seeks to explore the attitudes, expectations and motivations of visitors to Viana do Castelo, in Northern Portugal, to determine how the destination can reinvent a tourism product strategy based on its heritage and the emerging trends in the tourism market. A total of 205 usable questionnaires were collected using a convenience sample of visitors. Results of this study indicate that visitors are essentially independent travellers, seeking to explore the natural and cultural heritage of the region. Finally, a series of observations and recommendations are proposed that support a new form of cultural tourism based on the valuation of local know-how and creative skills in the form of creative tourism.