Creative Tourism Consumption: Framing the Creative Habitus through a Bourdieusian Lens

Abstract

Creative tourism studies remain a newly developed field, pointing to changes in the consumption of tourism and culture while influencing how creativity and co-creation differentiate tourism supply through exploring the existential dimensions of creative experiences, the latter remaining an under-researched theme in the creative tourism literature. In addition, this type of tourism is presented as more responsible and sustainable than other types of massified forms of tourism. Building on a Bourdieusian approach, an updated version of Bourdieu’s main sociological thinking tools was used to analyse the creative habitus of both the supply and demand involved in the co-creation of creative tourism experiences. The authors developed 42 semi-structured interviews with creatives and creative tourists using the Loulé Criativo network in Portugal as a case study and applied qualitative techniques for the data treatment. The results showed that the creative habitus could move successfully between fields, expressing a sustainable agency towards creative tourism consumption. Autodidactism is important for skill development and knowledge replication resulting from the co-creation of creative experiences. The creative habitus, endowed with intercultural and creative capital, is characterized by self-education and ecological awareness where co-creation and coexistence with other creative people enhance the development and replication of creative competencies outside the tourism field.

Regional Creative Capacity and Creative Tourism Development. The Case of Cultural Associations in Peripheral Areas

“…More specifically, nineteen cultural associations in the Municipality of Komotini, in settlements of less than 5000 inhabitants were investigated through primary field research with semi-structured in-depth interviews and qualitative techniques used for the data treatment. [86,36]. The semi-structured interview was based on a questionnaire consisting of twenty open-and close-ended questions, organized into three sections.…”

“…Creative tourism is considered a sustainable form of tourism where authentic experiences provide an alternative to mass tourism patterns and co-creation is critical in planning and consumer learning and creative experiences [35,36]. The main objectives of creative tourism include promoting interaction between visitors and locals, as well as active creative activities motivated by the region's endogenous resources (location and people) [37].…”