Creative Tourism as an Inductor of Co-Creation Experiences

Abstract

Creative tourism is characterized by the opportunity that gives visitors to develop their creativity through active participation in learning experiences that are characteristic of their destination. That implies a relationship between visitors and residents in which the exchange of knowledge is central. Being an interactive process, the learning and doing of a creative tourism activity is an exercise of self-affirmation that expresses the creative potential of each participant. That is to say, creative tourism experiences are co-created by tourists and their hosts. Tourists and residents are co-designers in creative tourism, as the CREATOUR experiences prove. In this chapter, the authors intend to present the project activities in the Algarve. After contextualizing co-creation within the creative processes, their research is centred on the creative experiences and discusses the opportunities resulting from co-created activities. They also look at the survey applied to the participants in the experiences to better understand their feelings towards co-creation and creative processes.

Profiling the participants in creative tourism activities: Case studies from small and medium sized cities and rural areas from Continental Portugal

“…Following from this, creative tourism participants considered to be Leisure Creative-Seekers demonstrate a need to socialize and share the co-creation process with others during their experience. These results align with the conclusions of several studies concerning the tourist’s involvement in the local culture through their participation in activities related with artefacts or other local products (e.g., Anderson, 2009 ; Cabeça, Gonçalves, Marques, & Tavares, 2020 ; Raymond, 2007 ; Tan et al, 2013 , among others). Creative tourism participants place great importance on co-creation in creative tourism activities, which involves processes involving tourists and residents as full participants and not passive subjects ( Binkhorst, 2008 ).…”

“…Creative tourism participants place great importance on co-creation in creative tourism activities, which involves processes involving tourists and residents as full participants and not passive subjects ( Binkhorst, 2008 ). Experiencing and interacting are key, with co-creation perceived as “a prerequisite for the definition of what a creative experience means and what it presupposes” ( Cabeça et al, 2020 , p. 12).…”

Post-Pandemic Tourism: Opportunities for Creative Tourism

“…As Duxbury & Richards (2019) put it, we are now facing a "creative tourism 4.0", once nowadays "a shift towards more relational forms of tourism and the co-creation of experiences facilitated through peer-to-peer networks" can be observed (Richards, 2020: 10). In fact, co-creating processes have assumed a major role in creative experiences (Cabeça et al, 2020). Visitors' and residents' active PEOPLE: International Journal of Social Sciences ISSN 2454-5899 participation in immersive cultural experiences is imperative in creative tourism.…”

“…But more than just making use of specific features, linking the places with its territorial capital, and challenging tourists to conclude a certain task with the help of the community (make a traditional craft, participate in an event, etc. ), creative tourism must consider how each place is felt (Casey, 2009), how local identity can be strengthened (Gu & Ryan, 2008), and how can tourists help to generate their own experience (Cabeça et al, 2020). It is about "being, doing, touching and seeing' (Perkin & Thorns, 2001: 189), and shifting the attention from the tourist's gaze to his all-being (Cohen & Cohen, 2012): "To interact, to learn, to do, to self-express" (Cabeça, 2020: 19).…”

Creative Tourism and Business Development in Akwa Ibom State

“…Cabeca et. al [7] claimed it is a type of tourism that develops the tourists' creativity through their active participation in experiences which are characteristics of their destination. Creative tourism is a step forward in cultural tourism and a catalyst of regional and local development [22].…”