Presentation on Creative tourism: Development, trends and opportunities, Mallorca, 2011

1. Creative tourism: Development,
trends and opportunities
Greg Richards
INTO Mallorca October 2011

2. The rise of creativity

3. A potential response to the challenge of
Serial reproduction in cultural tourism?
Iconic structures (e.g. the Guggenheim Bilbao)
Megaevents (e.g. the World Expo)
Thematization (e.g. Seoul Design City)
Heritage mining (e.g. World Heritage Sties)

4. The search for distinction:
Copying as cultural strategy?

6. Extract
commodities
Make goods
Deliver services
Stage
experiences
Create
transformations
DifferentiatedUndifferentiated
Market PremiumPricing
CoproductionProductfocus
The development of the experience economy
Mass tourism
Cultural tourism
Creative tourism

7. Inner DirectedOuter Directed
Basic Needs
(food, shelter)
Consumption focus
Unskilled Skilled
Changing modes of consumption

8. Changing Desires
The alienation of postmodern existence produces the desire
for authenticity - which is often linked to the everyday lives of
others
Skill and originality become sought-after markers of
authenticity, creativity and status
Sennett – The Craftsman – ‘’good craftsmen. ... have the
capacities to become better at, and more involved in,
what they do - the abilities to localise, question
and open up problems that can result,
eventually, in good work’’.

9. Unskilled Services
Skilled Experiences
Creative Transformations
Consumption Production
Co-creation Creative tourism Time and
Space

10. Production
Consumption
High culture
Popular culture
Everyday culture
Passive Active
Heritage tourism
Cultural tourism Creative tourism
Arts tourism
Crafts tourism
Shift from culture to creativity

11. Culture, tourism and the network society
Networks are increasingly necessary for the creation and distribution of
products and experiences
For example:
The search for ‘cool’ places – rapidly shifting, emphemeral, controlled by
critical infrastructure
The growing importance of narrative - you need to have stories about the
place and its people
Transcultural and intercultural phenomena – growth of new cultural forms
outside the established circuits of mainstream culture
The search for ‘authenticity’ and the ‘everyday’ – increasingly linked to the
idea of ‘local’ as opposed to ‘global’ – an important role for the ‘local
resident’

12. Challenge of the
network society –
Need to create new means of distinction
Barcelona
Language
Design, architecture
Gastronomy
Need to link a dispersed network of producers
with a dispersed network of consumers

13. Creativity is vital to the development of tourism in the
network society because it:
Links different actors, structures and networks
Shifts from bonding capital (culture as glue) towards bridging capital
(culture as dialogue)
Facilitates interaction with increasingly diverse cultures
Develops the visibility and attractiveness of intangible resources
Links different elements of the value network
(public, private, voluntary, etc)
Creates ‘atmosphere’

14. Richards and Raymond (2000) Definition of Creative Tourism:
“tourism which offers visitors the opportunity to develop
their creative potential through active participation
in learning experiences which are characteristic
of the holiday destination where they are undertaken”.
Arts and crafts
Design
Cookery, gastronomy and wine-making
Health and healing
Language
Spirituality
Nature and landscape
Sports and pastimes

16. Learning networks
Creative Tourism New Zealand
– network of informal workshops

17. Tasting

18. Tasting design

20. Taste the culture

21. Tasting networks

22. The festivities are a creative and exuberant
event for young and old alike. There is
something for everyone, but most of all there
is an abundance of good old-fashioned fun,
high spirits, and a wide range of activities to
choose from.
These neighbors enjoy an open night
of bingo under a sky of drifting
clouds.
Creative spaces in guidebooks – Festes de Gràcia

23. Zinneke Parade
Brussels

24. Creative tourism for
even for package
tourists?
Grecotel Agreco Farm, Crete
‘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’

25. Increasing the prospects for creative
tourism
The destination itself needs to be creative
Think about what is distinctive about a place
Think about how these features can be linken into local, national and
global networks
Develop co-creation systems
Develop links between tourism, culture and creativity
Use creative tourism as a tool for re-thinking places

26. A creative laboratory for tourism?