CREATOUR: Creative Tourism Destination Development in Small Cities and Rural Areas / Desenvolver Destinos de Turismo Criativo em Cidades de Pequena Dimensão e Áreas Rurais

O projeto CREATOUR funcionou como fase de investigação e desenvolvimento, com vista à catalisação de uma rede de promotores de turismo criativo que, a nível local, mas simultaneamente conectados a nível nacional, trabalharam na conceção, projeção, testagem e implementação da sua oferta em cidades de pequena dimensão e zonas rurais de todo o país. O presente livro faz a apresentação do que foram as ideias e a viagem de cada um dos 40 projetos-piloto do CREATOUR. Cada capítulo versa o avanço da caminhada e a organização (ou parceria) e projetos a ela inerentes, as dificuldades encontradas, os êxitos, o balanço da viagem até ao momento e as aspirações e planos para o futuro. O processo de elaboração dos capítulos, escritos conjuntamente por investigadores e profissionais, traduziu-se em valiosas experiências de coaprendizagem e troca de conhecimentos, dando origem a narrativas em que se pretende terem ficado consubstanciados o sabor único e a especificidade de cada uma das organizações e iniciativas.

O livro "CREATOUR: Catalisando o turismo criativo em cidades de pequena dimensão e em áreas rurais", resulta do trabalho desenvolvido no âmbito do projeto CREATOUR, que envolveu cinco centros de investigação e 40 organizações que conceberam e implementaram projetos-piloto de turismo criativo em quatro regiões do país: Norte, Centro, Alentejo e Algarve. O projeto CREATOUR funcionou como fase de investigação e desenvolvimento, com vista à catalisação de uma rede de promotores de turismo criativo que, a nível local, mas simultaneamente conectados a nível nacional, trabalharam na conceção, projeção, testagem e implementação de ofertas em cidades de pequena dimensão e áreas rurais de todo o país.

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 resi�dences to practice their creative expression and develop their art forms. In recent decades, we have observed the emergence of a new generation of travellers. 1 These tourists are increasingly seeking co-creation processes, leading to more relational forms of cultural tourism, and active participation in creative experiences ( Richards, 2020 ). And yet, pinning down the diverse, niche�oriented creative tourist has been an ongoing chal�lenge. Internationally, a number of studies have been conducted to profile the creative tourist (see Remoaldo et al., 2020 ) but no overarching comparative framework has yet been developed, and in Portugal no study on the creative tourist had previously been conducted. Within the project CREATOUR ® (Creative Tourism Destination Development in Small Cities and Rural Areas), we developed a detailed questionnaire for participants in the crea�tive tourism pilot activities organized within the project, which was applied by the 40 participating organizations as they conducted their pilot activi�ties in 2017, 2018, and 2019. These activities were developed and situated in small cities and rural areas in the Norte, Centro, Alentejo, and Algarve regions of the Portugal main�land. They ranged from small-scale participatory cultural festivals to gastronomy workshops to handicraft, mosaic-making, and other hands-on workshops. The common thread was an aspiration to develop creative tourism activities adhering to the CREATOUR ® approach to creative tourism, which incorporates active participation, learning, opportunities for creative self-expression, and con�nections to the local community. The questionnaire enabled us to gain insights on socio-demographic characteristics, motivations, behaviours, experiences, and perceptions of the activities – providing a rich source of insights on the creative tourist in Portugal. In this chapter, we pre�sent highlights of these questionnaire results, seg�mented by place of residence (i.e. domestic or international visitors) and suggest some implications of these findings. A motivational analysis of creative tourist participants can be found in Remoaldo et al. (2020) . Based on socio-demographic, travel behav�iour, and motivation-based criteria, three clusters were found: novelty seekers, knowledge and skills learners, and leisure creative seekers.

This book provides a synthesis of current research and international best practice in the emerging field of creative tourism. Including knowledge, insights, and reflections from both practitioners and researchers, it covers types of creative tourist, trends, designing and implementing creative tourism products, embedding activities in a community and place, and addressing sustainability challenges. Applying lessons learned from the CREATOUR project and other initiatives, the editors present key information in an actionable manner best suited to people working on the ground. The book: - Addresses important issues such as local economic benefit, social and collaborative economy, community engagement, social inclusion, youth empowerment, cross-cultural exchange, and responsible travel.- Provides a core, introductory text plus a wide range of cases examining creative tourism development in practice in 15 countries: Austria, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, Finland, Kenya, Namibia, Portugal, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Slovenia, Spain, Thailand, and the United States. - Includes colour photos, diagrams, text boxes, and call-out quotations throughout to help guide and engage readers. | A vital resource for tourism agencies, practitioners, planners and policymakers interested in developing creative tourism programmes and activities, this book will also be of interest to cultural and creative tourism researchers, students, and teachers of tourism and culture-based development. https://www.cabi.org/bookshop/book/9781789243567/

Description: Tourism is an economic and social phenomenon that is centered on a tourist's experience and is dependent on the experiences that are co-created and provided to tourists. Tourism destination managers must understand what tourists perceive as engaging, intense, and memorable in order to remain successful. However, care must also be given to the residents' perception of local tourism development and how it impacts their community. This is a fundamental aspect for tourism development since host communities that support tourism development tend to be more hospitable with tourists, which in uences their satisfaction and loyalty. Moreover, the interaction with residents of host communities is a crucial component of the quality of the tourist experience, contributing to the long-term success and sustainability of destinations. The Handbook of Research on Resident and Tourist Perspectives on Travel Destinations is a collection of innovative research that examines travel destinations from the resident and tourist perspectives in order to better support and inform the tourism development process and to make the destinations attractive to visitors while at the same time contributing to resident quality of life and happiness. While highlighting topics including sustainable development, hotel management, and customer satisfaction, this book is ideally designed for government officials,

This is the third of a series of three International Creative Tourism Webinars in Spring 2021 within the umbrella of CREATOUR International. Conceived as “global conversations,” the webinars aim to create a platform for connecting research and practice in a spirit of co-learning. As we look forward to “re-emergence” phases of social life and travel, this session will focus on highlighting the distinctiveness of a place through creative tourism and related initiatives. Special attention will be placed on addressing challenges and developing strategies and tactics to meaningfully connect travel to community and articulating with the sense of place. Featuring presentations by: Greg Richards | University of Tilburg / Breda University of Applied Sciences, the Netherlands Meng (Mo) Qu | Hiroshima University, Japan Maria Huhmarniemi | University of Lapland, Finland Mariana Calaça Baptista | Destino Caldas, Caldas da Rainha, Portugal Nicola Henriques | SILOS Contentor Criativo, Caldas da Rainha, Portugal Meghann Ormond and Fiona-Marie Hawes | Wageningen University / Roots Guide, Netherlands Note: This activity is carried out through the Zoom platform, with mandatory registration – up to June 1st. The Zoom link will be sent to registrants on June 2nd. More info: https://www.ces.uc.pt/pt/agenda-noticias/agenda-de-eventos/2021/highlighting-distinctiveness Register here: https://www.ces.uc.pt/pt/agenda-noticias/agenda-de-eventos/2021/highlighting-distinctiveness/registration

This is the second of a series of three International Creative Tourism Webinars in Spring 2021 within the umbrella of CREATOUR International. Conceived as “global conversations,” the webinars aim to create a platform for connecting creative tourism research and practice in a spirit of co-learning. Each webinar will bring together practitioners and researchers, and feature guests from creative tourism and allied areas of practice. Following initial presentations (approx. 10 minutes each), we will be encouraging all participants to engage in an open discussion, aiming to foster a platform to discuss experiences, concerns, and various gaps in knowledge (and practice), especially during this uncertain time. During the Covid-19 pandemic, both the culture and tourism sectors have been devastated, with retrenchment of actions common and organizational fragilities accentuated. The need for greater attention to place-embedded and socially-minded approaches has become ever greater with new strategies and mindsets being championed in both research and practice contexts. Alas, many of these narratives remain largely at a conceptual level, with the pragmatic extensions of this new thinking still in formation. This session will focus on addressing the challenges and building new practices of bridging between the tourism and cultural sectors to develop strategies and alliances for collaborations in ‘re-emergence’ contexts. | INFO: https://ces.uc.pt/en/agenda-noticias/agenda-de-eventos/2021/creatour-international-webinar | REGISTER HERE (free): https://ces.uc.pt/pt/agenda-noticias/agenda-de-eventos/2021/creatour-international-webinar/registration

Two new publications based on the CREATOUR research-and-application project - for practitioners and for policy-developers! Available in English and Portuguese versions. https://www.ces.uc.pt/en/agenda-noticias/destaques/2020/como-regenerar-comunidades-e-lugares-aliando #creatour #creativetourism #portugal #cultura #culture #heritagetourism #researchimpact #publications #culturedevelopment

Creative tourism is a quite recent tourism segment that has been rapidly diffused all over the world. Nevertheless, studies on this segment were not concerned, until present, with the differences in gender intention, evaluation and the overall satisfaction regarding creative tourism activities. For that, this paper examines these three components from a gender perspective regarding the creative tourism activities developed by CREATOUR pilots in the northern region of mainland Portugal between 2017 and 2019. The methods used were quantitative in nature. Five hundred and ninety-five questionnaires were applied to the participants in the 45 creative tourism activities developed by the 10 pilot institutions selected to join the CREATOUR project (Creative Tourism Destination Development in Small Cities and Rural Areas). The questionnaire used consisted of 31 closed questions aimed at the profile, the motivations, the perception and the evaluation of activities by the participants. It used descriptive statistics and discriminate analysis. The main results show that men and women had similar demographic characteristics (e.g., age and educational level), but they were significantly different in some variables, such as their intention to participate in creative activities, and their evaluation and overall satisfaction with their personal experiences. It is statistically confirmed that, based on their experiences in creative tourism, men and women fall into different clusters.

This article reports on the themes and trajectories of a multidisciplinary and international literature. It reveals how cultural and creative work in rural and remote areas has largely been examined and articulated through three storylines: (1) cultural vitality, that is, culture as a resource for community development; (2) the 'rural creative class', recently linked to rural innovation; and (3) rural creative economies and creative entrepre-neurship in rural and remote areas. Over the past decade, these strands of discourse have become more intertwined in policy and planning documents , suggesting an opportunity for converging these discussions into a more comprehensive approach to fostering cultural and creative work in rural and remote areas. However, cultural policy directed to rural areas remains underdeveloped compared to its urban counterpart.

Tourism is a process constructed out of gendered societies and all aspects of tourism-related development and activity are embody in gender relations. Although it is commonly believed that nowadays the differences between the travel patterns of men and women are less pronounced than before, gender differences still remain. This study examines the intention, satisfaction and evaluation by men and women tourists regarding creative tourism activities developed by CREATOUR pilots in the Northern region of Portugal mainland between 2017 and 2019. 595 questionnaires were appliedto the participants in tourism activities implemented by the 10 pilot institutions that were selected to join the CREATOUR Project. This project, titled “Creative Tourism Destination Development in Small Cities and Rural Areas”, developed between the end of 2016 and middle of 2020, was funded by the Joint Activities Programme of Portugal 2020, by Compete 2020, POR Lisboa, POR Algarve and Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT – Portugal). The questionnaire used consisted of 31 closed questions oriented to the profile, the motivations, the perception and theevaluation of activities by the participants. Respondents were asked to answer questions, such as: travel companions; their previous participation in a creative experience; reasons to visit the destination; characterization of creative tourismexperience; evaluation of their creative tourism experience and sociodemographic profile. The results derived from compare means and discriminate analysis revealed that women and men had the same demographic characteristics (e.g., age, number of elements in family and educational level). Nevertheless, men and women are significantly different in some variables such as satisfaction about creative activities, intention to creative activities and evaluation of experiencesin creative activities. It was statistically confirmed that men and women fall into different clusters based on their experiences in creative tourism.

A consensus has not yet been reached worldwide regarding the concept of creative tourism. Since 2000, it has generally been considered as a kind of tourism that can offer tourists the opportunity to co-create and develop their creative potential. To identify and analyze the nature of existing creative tourism practices today, we carried out an investigation to examine creative tourism networks and platforms internationally - providing a snapshop of the creative tourism field in 2017. In this chapter, we outline the difficulties in defining creative tourism and discuss the development of creative tourism spaces on an international scale through the creation of networks and platforms. The chapter provides an overview of the research findings and comments on the patterns, issues, and trajectories we perceived. At the end of the chapter, we provide a summary of future research directions. This research was conducted as part of the CREATOUR (Creative Tourism Destination Development in Small Cities and Rural Areas) project. CREATOUR is developing an integrated approach to creative tourism by combining interdisciplinary, methodological, technical, and theoretical approaches to link the tourism and cultural/creative sectors in non-metropolitan areas of mainland Portugal. The project aims to promote a more sustainable and holistic development of rural and small city/town destinations with a strong historical and cultural past through the active and creative involvement of visitors and residents with local habits, traditions, and customs. The initiatives that are integrated within this project link creative, culture-based activities with various aspects of the 'authentic heritage" of the varied landscape of the country for the benefit of both local residents and participating visitors.

Although cultural tourists increasingly seek to experience cultural events actively and to directly engage in creative activities, empirical knowledge about the creative tourist remains limited. This study aims to characterize the motivations and profile of creative tourists. The data was collected through a survey of participants in creative tourism activities in Portugal developed by 40 pilot institutions of the CREATOUR project during 2017 and 2018, with 814 usable questionnaires collected and validated. The questionnaire had 30 questions and marked the first time this kind of research was conducted in Portugal. The questionnaire included questions on: the composition of their travel companions, their previous participation in a creative tourism experience, reasons for visiting the destination, their characterization of the creative tourism experience, an evaluation of their creative tourism experience, and their socio-demographic profile. Using a cluster analysis to analyse the data, three clusters were found: Novelty-Seekers, Knowledge and Skills Learners, and Leisure Creative-Seekers.

A large number of destinations have been experimenting a changeover from the current massified cultural tourism to a creative tourism model. In this new model of tourism, urban territories have been privileged by its implementation, and in the past 20 years, urban studies on cultural and creative industries and initiatives have been taking place in large cities marginalizing small-sized cities and specifically rural areas. This article envisages assessing the differences between rural and urban institutions/platforms, mainly certified by the Creative Tourism Network, in what concerns the practices and offers in creative tourism worldwide. A database of 20 items was organized and a typology was used to categorize the type of territory of intervention for each institution. A total of 24 institutions from several countries were surveyed and a qualitative analysis was done and supported by the narratives of their leaders. Urban areas revealed to have a more active and diverse creative tourism activities. The results provide the need for more consolidated communication strategies and partnerships for these activities to become economically more sustainable. In addition, this research provides researchers and practitioners relevant information of how creative tourism is developed in rural and urban territories, the gaps and lack of information, and all the possible directions toward the development of the creative tourism industry.

Índice 4 Preface 5 About CREATOUR Basic principles 9 What is creative tourism? A retrospective view 13 How to Boost Creativity / Be Creative 15 Why creative tourism cannot be disconnected from culture? 18 Pillars of Creative Tourism 20 Tourism in Small Cities and Rural Areas The CREATOUR Experience 24 CREATOUR: a theoretical-practical approach 26 Our work with the pilots Improving your experience 32 What you need to know beforehand 34 Marketing Creative Tourism Experiences 37 What we’ve learned in fieldwork Glossary 46 Learn more

Over the years, cultural mapping methods have been used in several applications and contexts, for diverse cultural assets and to create new conditions for the development of local and regional resources. These methods were inspired by the development of big urban centres and regions, which have been the great engine of cultural mapping growth. The main objectives of the present paper are to provide a literature review on cultural mapping methodologies and to develop exploratory research on crowdsource tools on creative tourism which were applied to one Portuguese municipality in 2017. The research was supported by the implementation and integration of geographic information systems (GIS) and web mapping, which will become part of the solution for the growth of less developed territories and to make more interactive tourist activities. Web mapping's contribution to enhance crowd participation was measured via analysis of 12 digital photos shared through crowdsourcing. The originality of this research lies in the attempt to develop a new model for creative tourism, trying to extend the implementation of Web Mapping crowdsourcing to deprived low density territories. Results show how public participation can be amplified for the tourism market by crowdsourcing tools. These tools look very promising since they can help several members of the public at different ages to contribute to territorial knowledge, engage in activities, and collaborate through digital tools. It is a step to fulfil the lack of studies in this subject and it contributes to the way we think about future studies.

Addressing the theme of how sustainable rural futures can be realized by considering 21st century realities, this paper presents a unique project on the future of rural economic development and social cohesion through the initiation of creative tourism products in rural areas and small cities. The promotion of crafts to fuel rural socio-economic development is gaining momentum and simultaneously a change towards what is known as ‘transformative tourism’ (Pritchard, Morgan, & Ateljevic, 2011) is observed, as tourists demand more immersive experiences. Craft movements in the urban space which also act as vehicles for social cohesion within cities where isolation is common, have been gaining in popularity for the last 10 years. Creative tourism, which differs from cultural tourism in terms of being an active transfer of the past into the present via local-visitor interaction, rather than a passive observation of the past (Richards & Marques, 2012), offers a novel rural development tool that this paper investigates. This paper focus on the CREATOUR project which investigates how rural organizations, tourists and rural communities interact and forge new alliances in the Portuguese context. This three-year project started in 2016 and now has 40 pilot projects, which are entrepreneurs or organizations who are incentivized to offer innovative creative tourism products within rural areas and small cities. In this article, the ways in which the CREATOUR project can act as a sustainable rural development tool are analysed in terms of the evolving creative tourism offers and the development frameworks that creative tourism offers can be placed within, suggesting that this research and application project can be a model for other countries and provides advice on how to practically achieve this. Whilst at a preliminary stage, this project will have a large amount of data from tourists (through questionnaires handed out by pilot projects), IdeaLabs (meetings of pilots and researchers for knowledge exchange), e-portfolios, a documentary and researcher site visits, which partly inform this paper and will come to inform future research.

Original and thought-provoking, this book investigates how creative experiences, interactions, and place-specific dynamics and contexts combine to give shape to the expanding field of creative tourism across the globe. Exploring the evolution of research in this field, the authors investigate pathways for future research that advance conceptual questions and pragmatic issues. Bringing together an array of international perspectives and research approaches, this book investigates the growing synergies between creativity and tourism. Contributors from a variety of disciplines utilize key case studies to examine the development of creative tourism in both the global North and South, including: World Heritage Sites in Malaysia; small communities in Thailand; small town 'creative outposts' in Canada; community-engaged projects in rural Russia; Gangneung, Korea's 'coffee city'; the pioneering creative tourism city of Santa Fe; and a participatory museum in Croatia. Both the growing diversity and scope of creative tourism and the expanding body of literature on this topic makes this timely Research Agenda a vital read for scholars of tourism studies, especially as it offers much-needed suggestions of areas for future research, at doctoral and post-doctoral levels. Tourism policy makers and creative tourism practitioners will also find this a useful read. 'This fascinating new book with its diversity of authors and international case studies provides fresh insights into the dynamic field of creative tourism. The authors focus on topical themes such as experience design, co-creation, authenticity, transformation, sense of place and sustainability. The work identifies important gaps in research, as well as emphasizing implications for policy and planning.'-Melanie Kay Smith, Hungarian Academy of Sciences and Budapest Metropolitan University, Hungary

Within tourism research, there has been little attention to research–practice knowledge exchange during the research process nor to practice-based research. This article examines a research-and-application project on creative tourism in which research–practice collaboration is explicitly foregrounded and made central. Through a reflexive process, the challenges this hybrid approach embodies and the pragmatic dilemmas that accompany the complexities of building closer research–practice relations and capturing practice-based knowledge are examined in three strategic areas: developing spaces for ongoing knowledge exchange, enabling practitioners to take on the role of co-researcher, and fostering researchers’ close attention to the application side of the project. In the context of the CREATOUR project, hybrid roles question who can do research, reinforce consideration of the added value of research processes for practitioners, and lead researchers to go beyond traditional research activities, with this ‘disruptive’ context causing tensions, uncertainties, and dynamic co-learning situations. Ongoing interactions over time are necessary to build relations, understanding, and trust, while flexibility and responsiveness are vital to address emerging issues. Training on research–practice collaboration, knowledge transfer, and mentorship techniques for both researchers and practitioners is advised. Challenges in integrating practice-based knowledge directly into research articles suggest a customized communication platform may be a useful ‘bridging’ mechanism between practice-based and academic knowledge systems. ||| Published open access - https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14616688.2019.1630670?fbclid=IwAR0zYXQkDDhtswdy1uKVJxLWewa4iVw9tCQlXaEunwNmAuKLt7gAdmfg0nY

It is still hard to reach a consensus on the concept of creative tourism even if it emerged in 2000, with Richards and Raymond, as a new segment of tourism that can offer tourists the opportunity of co-creating and developing their creative potential. One of its characteristics is that it is quite open and flexible regarding its adaptation to local context. It can be seen as an evolution and as a new approach to cultural tourism which has reached a stage of massification in several world destinations, being Venice, Barcelona or London perfect examples of this. Authentic experiences and active involvement with the culture and contact with real people is a new challenge for the present decade and it is developing rapidly, mainly in Southern Europe. Until now there was little research on the networks and platforms/institutions dealing with creative tourism, and that is why we have developed an investigation, from 2017 to 2018, concerned with the identification and analysis of the existing practices at an international level. We intended also to evaluate the contribution of Portugal in what regards networks and platforms. This investigation was conducted within the scope of the CREATOUR project: Creative Tourism Destination Development in Small Cities and Rural Areas, funded under the joint activities of the “Portugal 2020 Programme” by COMPETE2020, PORLisboa, PORAlgarve and the Portuguese Foundation for Science, Research and Technology (FCT). This Project is going to be developed until 2020. For that we used qualitative methods focusing on content analysis. There was some research done on Google (web), a database with 20 items was created, as well as an analysis on the initiatives in creative tourism that are being developed worldwide. A deeper analysis was done after analysing the initiatives organised by each institution using interviews to the people in charge of the platforms/institutions. The main results tell us that the majority of the creative initiatives occur in Southern Europe. In Portugal’s case, the initiatives are “creative experiences” and have, in fact, to do with co-creation. This is not the case of other initiatives developed in other countries, where it has come to our knowledge that some of the institutions have more learning experiences than creative ones.

Alexandra rodrigues Gonçalves-ESGHT as comunidades criativas, o turismo e a cultura Os paradigmas do turismo dos anos 80 estão ultrapassados perante a emergência daquilo que se designou por «Turismo Criativo». As novas estratégias de regeneração urbana apontam para uma ligação e cooperação entre as 'indústrias criativas'e o turismo. O novo turista procura experiências autênticas, que proporcionem desenvolvimento pessoal e aprendizagem. A existência de recursos culturais e de património histórico não são condições obrigatórias ao desenvolvimento deste tipo de turismo, e estabelecem a fronteira com o turismo cultural. A cooperação entre o turismo e as indústrias criativas nem sempre é fácil, dado que apresentam abordagens distintas e por vezes conflituantes dos mesmos recursos. As principais estratégias de desenvolvimento das comunidades criativas são aqui apresentadas, assim como, as fórmulas mais utilizadas para o desenvolvimento do «Turismo Criativo». as políticas culturais de regenera-ção urbana e de turismo de várias comunidades e países, onde já se adoptaram as estratégias que de se-guida passaremos a expor. Alguns dos estudos de caso referidos resultam de pesquisa on-line, em páginas electróni-cas que incluem a promoção e a venda de produtos que vão ao encontro do nosso objecto de estudo (alguns dos quais surgem referenciados nos artigos científicos recolhidos). Num breve enquadramento conceptual , gostaríamos de começar por re-conhecer a importância que o turismo cultural assumiu a nível internacional, constituindo-se na actualidade como um dos segmentos que apresenta um maior e mais rápido crescimento no turismo global (OMT, 2001). De acordo com a Organização Mundial de Turismo este segmento apresenta mesmo uma introdução No presente artigo estabeleceu-se como principal objectivo sistematizar os desenvolvimentos mais recentes e descrever os resultados disponíveis sobre a investigação em turismo cultu-rali, e em particular, sobre o «Turismo Criativo». Os elementos apresentados resultam fundamentalmente de uma leitura crítica de artigos científicos publicados desde o ano 2000, sobre as indústrias culturais e criativas, as novas abordagens de gestão para os espaços históricos e culturais (mais centradas na experiência e no visitante), mas também sobre as motivações de visita do turista cultural e as novas atracções turísticas e culturais emergentes. Como fontes principais foram utilizados vários documentos oficiais internacionais onde se apresentam taxa de crescimento superior à média do turismo mundial. Associado a este crescimento encontra-se uma maior frequência das áreas urbanas e dos monumentos. A cultura é desde tempos imemo-riais uma motivação principal para via-jar, sendo no entanto, a viagem cultural associada à «Grand Tour» do século XVI, que marca o desenvolvimento do que hoje se designa por turismo cultural e patrimonial (Patin, 1997). Por sua vez, as atracções culturais assumem um papel de crescente importância no turismo e tornaram-se locais obrigató-rios de visita (MacCannell, 1976). Uma análise atenta das estatísti-cas do turismo demonstra uma clara tendência para permanências mais curtas do turista e para uma maior fragmentação das férias. Têm vindo a ser desenvolvidos vários instrumen

ABSTRACT: Creative tourism is helping to revitalize local economies. By offering "visitors the opportunity to develop their creative potential through active participation in courses and learning experiences which are characteristic of the holiday destination" (Richards and Raymond, 2000), creative tourism promotes the tourist immersion into the local culture, and the active participation in cultural and creative activities. In such a touristic experience, the place of destination, and local communities are determinant to lead tourists to an "engaged and authentic experience" that "provides a connection with those who reside in this place and create this living culture" (UNESCO, 2006). The cultural heritage, the cultural values, and local identity of a given community, are, therefore, important placed-based assets that capture visitors. Tourists search authenticity, human interaction, cultural immersion, arts and crafts... There is a spatial dimension of creativity that relates to specific features of territorial capital and, in this territorially based view, the value proposition of culture stands out. The sense of place and cultural assets are basis for creativity. Creative tourism offers, deeply rooted in territorial conditions, link creativity to places, providing unique cultural experiences that can help to preserve local heritage, identity, and culture, generating economic and social value to regions. In Portugal, the project CREATOUR - Creative Tourism Destination Development in Small Cities and Rural Areas - is working with a range of cultural/creative organizations in order to implement new creative tourism offers that might contribute to the social and economic development processes and sustainability of the places and regions where they take place, focusing on cultural resources and community involvement. This paper intends to present the project and to discuss the role of creative tourism in sustainable development by introducing the initiatives held by the project and its partners from Algarve's region towards a diversified offer; and skills, knowledge, and practices valorization.

In recent years, tourism in Portugal has grown exponentially and it is currently one of the main drivers of the Portuguese economy. While all regions report visitors and offer various ‘attraction’ activities, historic sites, and beautiful locales, tourism still remains heavily concentrated in the large cities of Lisbon and Porto as well as the traditional beach-and-sun Algarve region. Growing concerns (internationally) with the negative impacts of over-tourism and with tendencies toward tourism homogeneity at a time when travellers are increasingly seeking meaningful and authentic experiences loom over this picture. At the same time, from a domestic perspective, finding sustainable development options and possibilities for smaller communities in the interior, especially those that are remotely situated, is an ever-present concern. Turismo Portugal, the national tourism agency, has been making statements about the desire to pull tourists away from overvisited areas such as the big cities and redistribute them into other regions. These tourism flows provide a possible opportunity for many smaller communities if attractive offers can be designed and communicated to appropriate niche markets, and if these initiatives are developed with an eye to accentuating the quality of life for local residents, maintaining local control, and designing for local benefit. || Creative tourism is commonly described as a reaction to the growing mass marketization of cultural tourism mixed with the growing desire of travellers to play more active roles in their journeys. Between these two dynamics, however, the question of how to catalyze and develop a creative tourism ‘sector’—especially in non-metropolitan contexts—is rarely addressed in the creative tourism literature. With this as its context, the CREATOUR project brings together teams in five research centres and 40 pilot organizations to promote, learn, and develop a variety of place-specific, small-scale creative tourism initiatives in small cities and rural areas throughout the Norte, Centro, Alentejo, and Algarve regions, which together comprise most of mainland Portugal (see Figure 1). ...

The rise of the ‘experience economy’ (Pine and Gilmore, 1998) has led to the recognition of experiences as intrinsically embodying economic (and other) value. In the tourism context, this translated into a focus on creating memorable and unique events and activities, initially designed as ‘staged experiences’. However, in a ‘prosumer’ culture with a growing desire for interaction and involvement, this progressed further, with tourists increasingly desiring ‘co-creation’ experiences and taking on more active roles (Campos et al., 2015). In parallel, tourists’ growing desire for direct and meaningful involvement in the face of ‘massified’ cultural tourism offers and organized experiences has fuelled the development of ‘creative tourism’ (Richards and Wilson, 2007). In this context, creators of creative tourism experiences need to think carefully about the aspects of creativity that are related to its place and that offer creative tourists a specific motivation to visit (Richards, 2011). || This chapter begins by outlining some of the key lines of discussion in the field of creative tourism and then provides an overview of CREATOUR, a national creative tourism research-and-application project in Portugal, and its project pilots, presenting a few examples to illustrate the types of creative activities designed and how they connect to the place in which they are being developed and implemented. Then, reflecting on discussions with pilot organizations during the ‘start-up’ phase of the project, a series of challenges and issues that have been encountered are discussed. In closing, lessons learned in the start-up stages about the importance of embedding place-specificity in the development of creative tourism offers in smaller cities/towns and rural areas are reinforced.

Purpose: Given limited research about how artisans become integrated into tourism, this paper investigates the emergence of artisan entrepreneur-mediators who link artisans to tourism in rural areas and small cities in Portugal. Using social embeddedness as a conceptual framework, this paper views artisan entrepreneur-mediators as existing within an entrepreneurial ecosystem. The paper investigates their role within this ecosystem and how artisan entrepreneur-mediators connect artisans to creative tourism in a rural context. Design/methodology/approach: The paper is based on new (2017 and 2018) empirical evidence developed through two rounds of semi-structured interviews of five artisan entrepreneur-mediators. Findings: This paper finds that artisan entrepreneur-mediators in rural areas or small cities take on multiple roles as networking agents who organize and offer creative tourism experiences, providing the missing link between artisans and tourists. An analysis of the nuances of the operations of these artisan entrepreneur-mediators suggests that high levels of social embeddedness within local rural communities is important in order for these neo-rural entrepreneurs to attain their goals. Originality/value: Originality lies in the identification of a gap in artisan entrepreneurship literature in a rural context. It is the first time that a critical analysis of artisan entrepreneur-mediators who facilitate the link between artisans and tourism, is carried out in terms of social embeddedness, their roles and connections to creative tourism, and types of community engagement.