Creative Tourism and Local Development

Greg Richards

greg@tram-research.com

Published as: Richards, G. (2009) Creative tourism and local development. In: Wurzburger, R.,
Pattakos, A. and Pratt, S. (eds) Creative Tourism: A global conversation. Santa Fe: Sunstone
Press, pp. 78-90.

Creative tourism is a new form of tourism which has the potential change existing models of
tourism development and to make a contribution to diversifying and innovating the tourist
experience. By doing so, creative tourism can help to stimulate local economic, social and
cultural development. This paper examines the background and development of the creative
tourism concept, showing how the production and consumption of experiences has shifted from
cultural tourism to creative tourism. In conclusion, a number of different models of creative
tourism development are presented, illustrating how the concept has been implemented in
different ways around the world.

The origins of the creative tourism concept

The roots of the creative tourism concept go back to the mid-1990s, when a group of
researchers and practitioners were looking at ways to enhance the sales of craft products to
tourists (Richards 2005). The basic aim of the EUROTEX project was to help conserve craft
production by marketing local products more effectively to tourists, developing new outlets for
craft sales and securing local jobs. It quickly became clear that one of the biggest challenges for
craft producers was distinguishing their high-value hand-made products from the cheaper mass
produced items. Unless the tourists can appreciate the work and skill that goes into making
handcrafted products, they are unlikely to want to pay more for them.

Through discussions with craft producers and interviews with tourists, we quickly realised that
many visitors were interested in seeing how craft products were made, and many wanted to
learn craft skills for themselves. As a result, we decided to develop craft experiences which
allowed the visitors to get involved with the production process, either by seeing craft producers
at work or by learning particular textile production techniques.

These basic ideas became the inspiration for what would later be called ‘creative tourism’.

Why creative tourism is becoming more important

Many tourists are becoming increasingly bored with the packaged, sanitised products currently
on offer in the tourism market. Even cultural tourism, seen by many destinations as the antidote
to low quality, mass tourism (Richards 2007; 2009), has become so ubiquitous and large-scale
that it has taken on many traits of conventional tourism. Almost every major city now has a bus
tour linking all the ‘must-see’ cultural sites, and the cultural tourists dutifully troop in and out of
the bus taking photos of the same (preferably tourist-free) vistas as everybody else.

The desire to creativity engage with tourism has spawned initiatives such as ‘experimental
tourism’ in which travel is determined by chance and whim, rather than the tourist industry. For
example, the Lonely Planet Guide to Experimental Travel
(http://www.lonelyplanet.com/experimentaltravel/) includes strategies such as ‘A-Z-travel’:
‘Choose a town to visit from A to Z. Find the first road beginning with A and the last beginning
with Z, and draw a line between the two. Walk the length of this line and discover the city
alphabetically.’

Creative tourism is becoming more important not just because the tourists are bored, but also
because the cultural sector and destination managers are looking for new ways to interact with
tourists. It is becoming increasingly important not just to sell the culture of a place, but also to
use tourism to support the identity of the destination and to stimulate the consumption of local
culture and creativity (Richards and Wilson 2007).

Creative tourism is therefore driven by factors emanating from the sphere of consumption and
from the production side. These include the increasingly skilled nature of consumption, the
growing importance of experiences and the greater role for intangible and everyday culture in
tourism.

The rise of skilled consumption

Initially, the basic drivers of human behaviour in developed societies shifted from meeting basic
needs (such as food and shelter) towards ‘outer-directed’ consumption, such as the acquisition
of status goods (TVs, cars, a sun tan in winter). Such forms of outer-directed consumption
require money, rather than specific skills, and Scitovsky (1976) therefore labelled these
‘unskilled consumption’. In contrast, the current movement in society is towards ‘skilled
consumption’, including education, self-development and creative activities, which depend on
developing individual skill and creativity. Whereas unskilled consumption tends to become
boring with repetition, skilled consumption actually becomes more interesting the more it is
practiced. By developing a skill people can also increase their level of challenge and therefore
the excitement of the activity themselves.

The development of skills through consumption is also linked with a high level of involvement
and absorption in the experience, which has resonance with the ideas of Mihály
Csíkszentmihályi (1990) about ‘flow’. Creativity offers much more stimulating experiences as
well as enabling the participants to develop themselves through those experiences.

The attractiveness of creativity is also highlighted by the growing numbers of people with
creative professions. In the United States Ray and Anderson (2000) describe the emergence of
the ‘cultural creatives’ as an identifiable group, and Florida (2002) points to the emergence of a
‘creative class’ in cities worldwide. Florida argues that creative people are attracted by places
which are diverse and lively, usually as the result of a thriving creative sector. Although this
argument is fairly circular, there does seem to be a correlation between creativity and the
attractiveness of places.

The experience economy

The growing importance of the creative sector is also a result of what Pine and Gilmore (1998)
have called the Experience Economy, where competition based on producing goods or services
has been replaced by competition to produce experiences. They argue that goods and services
can be easily copied, which drives prices down, reducing profitability. In contrast, experiences
are unique and cannot be copied because they are produced for and directly involve individual
consumers.

But it is clear to everybody that experiences are also being copied, and that competition is
increasing even for master experience crafters such as Disney. For example Disney has taken
action against a number of Chinese theme parks for their alleged copying of Disney characters,
rides and attractions. A banner over the entrance to Shijingshan Amusment Park in Beijing
recently made this emulation obvious to visitors: `Disney is too far, so please come to
Shijingshan.' The Beijing park already has its own versions of Snow White, Cinderella, Dumbo
and Winnie the Pooh, so why travel to California?

Pine and Gilmore have also recognised that experiences themselves may also become subject
to replication and therefore may ultimately lose their value. They postulated that a further stage
of economic development would place the emphasis on ‘transformations’ – experiences that
actually change the person consuming them. Activities such as yoga, learning a language or
developing a craft skill give the consumer far more value than any single experience, however
entertaining and engaging. For many producers, therefore, adding value to experiences will
mean allowing the consumer to use their own creativity in interacting with the experience. This
is already evident in the world of computer games, which are increasingly shifting towards multi-
player virtual environments.
Shift from tangible to intangible tourism resources

The increasing importance of experiences as part of the tourism product is also marked by a
growing deployment of intangible cultural resources in the tourism product. Increasingly tourism
depends on intangible elements such as the image or atmosphere of places. The media is also
increasingly important for distributing and forming such images. Narratives are also more
important, creating ‘stories’ about people and places which make specific destinations
attractive. For example the Dutch city of Den Bosch, birthplace of the medieval surrealist
Hieronymus Bosch, has no tangible evidence of its links with the painter. His works are spread
around museums in Europe, America and Asia, but nothing remains in the city itself. So when
Den Bosch decided to capitalise on its famous son, it had to do so by using intangible
resources: ‘heaven and hell’ boat trips along the underground river in the medieval heart of the
city, accompanied by a storytelling guide and interrupted by an impromptu theatre performance;
an interactive Hieronymus Bosch experience telling the story of his life and projections of
Bosch-like scenes onto the facades of buildings. It is clear that creativity is needed to deploy
intangible resources and turn these into experience and products for tourists.

Figure 1: The shift from tangible to intangible resources in tourism

Built heritage Image

Museums Identity
Monuments Lifestyles
Beaches Atmosphere
Mountains Narratives
Creativity
Media

Shift from high culture to everyday culture

The growing importance of intangible culture also means that the type of cultural content is
changing. In the pasty, cultural tourism was dominated by high culture – the museums, art
galleries and monuments which constitute the ‘must-see’ sites for many destinations.
Increasingly these mass cultural sites are places to be avoided for the discerning tourist, who
prefers to seek out small-scale, out of the way places which other (cultural) tourists have not yet
found. The local bar or café, the intimate restaurant serving local food eaten by local people; the
market selling fresh regional produce - these are the types of places where tourists hope to
encounter ‘authentic’ culture. High culture may attract mass cultural tourism, but everyday
culture is increasingly the refuge of the knowledgeable cultural tourism and the creative tourist.

Desire for more active, engaging experiences

What the tourist is seeking in these local places is more contact with real people and
engagement with the local culture and creative practices. The postmodern search for identity,
meaning and ‘roots’ impels many to seek experiences which give them the opportunity to
interact with local communities, learning more about what makes them tick and how they relate
to the world. This drive also explains why volunteer travel has become so important, and why
more and more young people are spending long periods studying and working abroad (Richards
2008). What people increasingly seem to want is an experience which makes them feel part of
the community, rather than a passive observer.
The need for places to make themselves more distinctive

At the same time that tourists are looking for new experiences, so more and more places are
transforming themselves into tourist destinations. The problem is increasingly: ‘how can we
make ourselves stand out from the crowd?’. Of course, some cities have gone down the route of
building new cultural monuments to make their name on the global stage, such as the Spanish
city of Bilbao with its Guggenheim Museum. However, there are few communities who can
afford these sorts of investments, particularly as the cost of making a real impact spirals. Using
creative resources to develop intangible events and attractions may therefore provide a viable
alternative for many communities. For example the City of Providence, Rhode Island, has
utilised fire installations to revitalise the riverfront and attract visitors. Creative use can be made
of all sorts of resources, such as recycled materials (Festes de Gràcia, Barcelona – see below),
tomatoes (La Tomatina in Buñol in Spain) and water (the Waterfalls of New York art installation)
to make places attractive to residents and visitors alike and to make them stand out from other
places.

Putting it all together – from cultural tourism to creative tourism

The changes we have noted in the production and consumption of tourist experiences lead us
to believe that there is a double shift occurring in the basis of cultural tourism. On the
consumption side, tourists are engaging more actively with the culture and creativity of places,
and increasingly turning their backs on products which reduce them to mere observers of
culture. On the production side, communities are beginning to utilise the full range of cultural
and creative resources available to them, which includes not just the ‘high culture’ highlights
such as national museums and monuments, but also incorporates popular and everyday culture
as elements of the tourist product, since these are often the factors which allow a destination to
differentiate itself (the Irish craic, the vibrant arts community in Santa Fe, Carnival in Rio).

Figure 2: The shift from cultural to creative tourism

Consumption

Passive Active
Production

High culture
Heritage tourism Arts tourism

Popular culture Cultural tourism Creative tourism

Crafts tourism
Everyday culture
In summary, all these different elements combine in what Richards and Raymond (2000) first
identified as ‘creative tourism’:

Tourism which offers visitors the opportunity to develop their creative potential through
active participation in courses and learning experiences which are characteristic of the
holiday destination where they are undertaken.

There are some reasons for supposing that creative tourism offers an alternative to the serial
reproduction culture while also fitting in with the consumer for self development and ‘authentic’
experiences. Leaving creative space for the consumer to be creative avoids the
McGuggenheimisation of cultural experiences, while the emphasis on intangible resources
reduces production costs and increases flexibility for the destination.

Creative tourism is becoming more important because:

 Cultural tourism is becoming mass tourism

 Cultural tourists are becoming more experienced and demanding more engaging
experiences
 Destinations are looking for alternatives to traditional tourism products

Creativity is important in tourism because

 It creates ‘atmosphere’
 It feeds on people’s need for self-development
 It creates a direct link between the culture of the tourist and the host population
 It avoids problems of heritage burnout and serial reproduction

Although creativity is being recognised by many destinations as being important to their tourism
activity, creative tourism does not just happen – it must be actively created through interaction
between tourists and the places they visit. One of the most important elements of the definition
of creative tourism is that the experiences developed should be characteristic of the place in
which they happen. In order to develop such experiences, communities need to make creative
use of a wide variety of creative assets (inherited, created and creative assets) in order to
provide creative experiences for tourists. The crucial thing is to develop a specific reason for
tourists to engage in creative activities in your particular destination.

This requirement implies that destination managers need to become more creative. In
particular, they need to stop thinking about their role as simply supplying tourist products,
services or experiences, and to start thinking about their role as enablers of tourist creativity.
They need to find ways to actively involve tourists as the co-creators of the experiences which
their community offers (Binkhorst 2007)..

Forms of creative tourism

Creative tourism is nothing new – people have been engaging in creative, educational and
learning experiences on holiday for a long time. The difference now is that this type of tourism
has become so common that it can be identified under a new label: creative tourism. The rapid
strides made in the few years between the definition of the concept and the staging on the first
international conference on creative tourism in Santa Fe are testament to the dynamic growth of
the sector.

The last few years have seen the emergence of a wide range of creative tourism development
strategies and the advent of a wide range of creative tourism experiences. In our view, creative
tourism is not a single model of tourism development, but rather a broad range of different
possible approaches to engaging tourists with creative experiences.

In general, there are two basic modes of implementation of creative tourism:

1) Using creativity as a tourist activity

2) Using creativity as backdrop for tourism
The first is a more ‘classic’ model of creative tourism ,since it emphasises the active
engagement of tourists in creative activities in the destination. However increasingly
communities are realising that their creative lives can make a place attractive to be in, even if
the tourists themselves don’t ‘do’ anything creative themselves. Santa Fe is a good example of
this: the artistic and creative community of Santa Fe produces a particular ‘atmosphere’ or ‘vibe’
which makes the city attractive to be in, even for visitors who don’t visit the opera or buy a
painting.

There are also many different types of experiences and products which can be offered to the
creative tourist. Again, these experiences range from more active forms of involvement, such as
learning a specific skill, to browsing galleries and shops looking at creative products.

Table 1: A typology of creative tourism experiences

Basis of activity Type of experience

Learning Workshops
Tasting Experiences
Open ateliers
Seeing Itineraries
Buying Galleries, Shop windows

These different types of creative experiences are also linked to various forms of delivery and
organisation structure. Many new networks are springing up which link together creative
producers in order to engage in collaborative marketing and to increase the visibility of creative
activities. Destinations are also beginning to form partnerships of creative enterprises, as well
as linking the creative and tourism sectors in order to develop new creative experiences. The
following section provides a number of different examples of how creativity is being injected
into tourism around the world.

Examples of creative tourism development

Creative tourism networks

The most developed creative tourism network can be found in the city of Nelson, New Zealand,
where Creative Tourism New Zealand has been established as a network of creative
businesses offering products to tourists (www.creativetourism.co.nz). The network provides a
wide range of creative experiences, including bone carving, Maori language classes, weaving,
felting and woodwork and New Zealand gastronomy. The focus is very much on learning
experiences, with a range of hands-on workshops being run by local tutors (Raymond 2007 –
see also Raymond’s chapter in the current volume).

Creative Tourism Barcelona (www.barcelonacreativa.info) takes a slightly different approach,

acting as an intermediary to link creative producers in the city with people from other parts of
the world who want to engage in creative activities there. Their website allows potential creative
tourists to indicate the types of creative activities they are interested in, and they are then put in
touch with local creative sector actors who can provide the facilities or resources to make it
happen.

Spaces

Creativity needs space, and creative destinations make innovative use of their spaces to
facilitate creative tourism. This also applies to the area of accommodation, which is usually one
of the least creative aspects of the tourism product. In Barcelona different forms of
accommodation have tapped into the creative sector to develop new experiences. The Chic and
Basic hotel has staged fashion shows, using it’s individually-designed bedrooms to showcase
the products of young local designers. The Equity Point hostels group (http://www.equity-
point.com/hostelart/index_es.html) runs a ‘hostelArt’ programme, giving young artists an
opportunity to exhibit their work in hostel rooms and introducing young travellers to the creative
sector in Barcelona. The Camping House Barcelona (http://www.barcelona-
house.com/CHcast/arquitectostxtC.html) is a new concept in tourist accommodation, providing
guests with the sensation of camping in the middle of the city, and adding design value to their
stay.

Particular spaces have also been developed to offer creative learning experiences to visitors in
different parts of the world. For example the Italian coffee producer illy’s Università del Caffè
provides courses on all aspects of coffee and coffee making at 11 different locations
(http://www.illy.com/wps/wcm/connect/us/illy/the-world-of-coffee/universita-del-caffe/). Since
1999, approximately 22,000 students have graduated from this institution.

Events

Ceolas is a week-long music school that was established on the island South Uist in Scotland
in 1996 by the Gaelic Arts Agency (http://www.ceolas.co.uk/). The Objectives of Ceolas are

 To provide opportunities for high quality tuition in the Gaelic arts and a memorable
cultural tourism experience

 To encourage community celebration of the indigenous Gaelic arts and culture of the
area

 To raise local awareness of the socio-economic development potential of the arts as

well as their educational and cultural value

 To promote the Gaelic arts as a unique and vital cornerstone of Scottish cultural identity

 To stimulate community confidence and prompt new ideas and new local developments

During the week-long programme, a wide range of events, concerts and activities are
organised, and the number of people attending Ceolas events has varied between 2000 and
3500, almost as many as the total population of the island (4000). The event fills all the
available beds in South Uist for a week, boosts visitor spending and helps to develop interest in
local culture. The festival has increased pride in local culture among residents and raised social
cohesion.

In spite of the isolated location of the island, many of the participants come from abroad. The
development of social events and the house ceilidhs have integrated the visitor into the life of
the island and cleverly transformed the visitor, who may think of themselves as an outsider, into
someone who is part of the life of the island – even if it is only for one week in the year. In
particular Ceolas is a good example of the way in which traditional cultural tourism based on
museums and monuments is being transformed into new modes of experience, such as creative
tourism. Tourists and residents essentially become partners in the production of a cultural
experience which is based on tradition as a source of inspiration for contemporary creativity.

The Festes de Gràcia is a local festival in a district of Barcelona which has developed into a
major celebration for the whole city. The key element of this event is the decoration of local
streets by residents, using recycled materials. Each street is themed, and there I a high level of
creativity involved in creating a totally new space from discarded items such as water bottles
and milk cartons.

Cultural Itineraries

Cultural itineraries can also be a means of linking together creative enterprises and events,
stimulating visitors to see a number of different activities in a specific region. The Craft Route of
the Alto Minho in Northern Portugal includes a large number of crafts producers, most of whom
work from home. The brochure and website given tourists the possibility of visiting these
producers, but the lack of any form of contact apart from telephone makes it difficult for non-
Portuguese speakers. As a practical solution to the problem of dealing with foreign tourists, the
tourist board has now begun to sell craft products in its information centres. Sales are supported
by demonstrations from crafts producers during the high season.

The results of this initiative have been positive, with a rapid increase in craft sales. Producers
said they were happy with the increased sales and with the extra marketing efforts by the tourist
board. The main problem was that the project-based funding finished after three years, leading
to a lower level of marketing activity and lower sales.

As a new approach to the cultural itinerary concept, the Council of Europe is developing a
‘Cultural Corridor’ scheme, initially in South East Europe. The Council of Europe defines
Cultural Corridors as:

Networks of interaction and economic exchange based on culture and creativity,

incorporating principles of sustainability, fairness and inclusion, based on wide
stakeholder partnerships which are rooted in solid institutional frameworks that stimulate
regional socio-economic development.

The basic idea is to create networks which move beyond physical routes linking cultural sites to
include the full range of creative assets in a region (Richards, Russo and Grossman 2008).

Creative backdrops

Many cities have a reputation of being ‘creative’ in one way or another, just as Santa Fe does.
In many cases this creativity is experienced by the visitor not so much in the direct consumption
of creative activities, but rather through the general atmosphere or buzz of the place as a whole,
which is generated by the creative sector.

Not only is the creative buzz of a place important in attracting people, but it can also be turned
into a specific attraction as well. In Barcelona, cuisine is a major attraction, particularly as
Catalunya has a growing reputation as a major area of culinary innovation. One advertisement
for Catalan Cooking courses emphasises the active involvement of participants, who can ‘Learn
about the variety and quality of Catalan food in a guided visit to the famous La Boqueria market’
after which ‘Jaume, our active and experienced cooking teacher, will cook with the help of the
group, two main dishes and a dessert based on some of the most famous recipes of regional
Catalan cuisine’. Barcelona has also discovered the creative sector as attraction in its own right,
as one tour operator now runs a ‘Creative talent in Barcelona’ excursion, which ‘takes you
directly to the artists and craftspeople, giving you an insight into the creative process and
providing an opportunity to buy at advantageous prices, before their creators become too
famous’. The creative backdrop provided by Barcelona is also utilised by a number of people to
run courses in creativity.

Creative tourism for even for package tourists?

Creative tourism doesn’t only have to be about small, exclusive groups of tourists. The same
philosophy can arguably be applied even to ‘packaged’ holidays. For example, Grecotel is the
largest hotel chain in Greece, but it applies many of the principles of creative tourism through its
cultural programme. Grecotel has established the Agreco Farm in Crete, where hotel guests
can enjoy

an innovative display of environmentally friendly methods for traditional and modern

cultivation and breeding. The overall objective is to give visitors a first hand experience of
the traditional production methods of traditional Greek products

Grecotel also supports a monastery near some of its hotels in Crete, and helps the nuns to
display their craft skills and sell craft products to tourists. Although the level of interaction may
be lower than in some of the smaller-scale creative tourism experiences, it does bring package
tourists a lot closer to the local culture than they would normally get.
Opportunities for creative tourism

In conclusion, it seems that creative tourism can offer many advantages to destinations wishing
to develop new forms of tourism activity. Arguably, it has a number of important advantages
over many more conventional forms of tourism, including cultural tourism:

 Creativity can provide a source of tourism activity, as well as an attractive backdrop for
general tourism activity

 Creative development of tourism can help sustain the atmosphere of the destination

 Creative tourism can become a means of business development for crafts producers
and other small creative enterprises

 Enables local people to use their own creativity (and puts them in control of the
process)

 It is a renewable resource

We look forward to seeing how destinations around the world innovate and develop on the basic
creative tourism concept to produce new forms and models of culturally-sensitive, sustainable
tourism in the future.

References

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