Domestic and international creative tourists in Portugal: Insights for practitioners

Abstract

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. These findings suggest the potential for repeat visitors and the need to continually evolve activities to re-attract their interest as well as the value of operating in a network where travellers' participation in a creative tourism activity at one location can lead to participation in other activities elsewhere. This potentially virtuous cycle can strengthen awareness and connectedness among organizers of creative tourism activities in smaller places and rural areas.