Creative Tourism
UNESCO identifies creative tourism as the new generation of tourism. Being a Shepherd for a day, accompanying the harvest of cork, learning basketry or weaving are some of the many activities that the interior of Portugal has to offer.
According to the international organization Creative Tourism Network there are several challenges that creative tourism can transform into new opportunities. They are the diversification of the tourism offer through the optimization of existing resources, the attractiveness of quality tourism outside the designated high season, a better geographical distribution, the empowerment of local communities, social cohesion through the co-creation of experiences, sustainability based on use of creativity as a main resource, the preservation and transmission of intangible heritage or the diversification of financial resources for cultural structures.
The concept of creative tourism was developed by professors Crispin Raymond and Greg Richards in the 2000s, who defined it as “Tourism that offers visitors the opportunity to develop their creative potential through active participation in courses and learning experiences, which are characteristics of the vacation destination they are taken to.”
Interest in this new way of traveling has grown very rapidly over the past five years. Tourists have become “travelers” who want to go beyond traditional excursions and share unique experiences with the locals. This causes a paradigm shift, as it forces the tourism industry to collaborate with local actors among the most diverse: farmers, artists, artisans, cultural managers, retirees.
According to the Creative Tourism Network these new tourists want to discover the local culture by participating in artistic and creative activities, living experiences that allow them to feel “integrated” locally, they are not interested in “monumentalism” or “spectacular” or “superlative tourism”.
Share their experiences through social networks, are unique in their way of traveling, after having experienced creative tourism, they can no longer settle for a conventional circuit.
They devote an important part of their budget to carrying out activities or experiences combining various types of tourism during their trip and stay. The creative, linguistic, gastronomic, industrial, ecotourism, slow tourism, among others.
Based on this benchmark, we aim to identify opportunities in the territories that can foster local economies through the creation of new products for this segment that has been registering an increasing demand.
We develop all the work from the research of resources, through the production of content to the promotion with the tour operators.
