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Batey, M. 2012 The Measurement of Creativity: From Definitional Consensus to the Introduction of a New Heuristic Framework. Creativity Research Journal 24:55-65.

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Guerreiro, M. (2016). Creative tourism. In: Jafari, J., Xiao, H. (eds) Encyclopedia of Tourism. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-01384-8_39

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Benefits of Creative Tourism - The Tourist Perspective

In the last decade creative tourism emerged as a new form of cultural tourism emphasizing higher involvement and interaction of tourists with the culture of the destination. It is the field of tourism still scarcely researched, with most of the effort concentrated on the experience of creative producers. Thus, this study looked at the demand side and sought to explore beneficial experiences tourists attain through participation in creative tourism activities. It examined motivation as well as emotive and psychological processes experienced by tourists in their interaction with the activity setting in order to find how these experiences are valued or seen as beneficial. The study is performed on the case of creative cooking workshops organized by Espai Boisa company in Barcelona. A qualitative methodology based on face-to-face interviews and observations was deemed the most appropriate to attain the research aims. It is found that tourists see multiple benefits of their creative cooking experience. The key benefits noted are: cognitive – insight gain and cooking skill development; affective – possibility of future sharing of the experience; reflective – learning different approach to Spanish cuisine; and social benefits – spending time with others. While the tourists reporting social gains as most important showed little interest in the activity and are regarded as mindless, tourist pointing other benefits were sensitive to context and mindful. Moreover, through active participation and co-creation with locals, mindful tourists not only got to experience immersion and psychological engagement with the culture of the region, but they also perceived the experience as memorable and authentic. It is found that tourists can at the same time be mindful and, in a way, mindless. The study has important implications for marketing and management of creative tourism field and can help in the improvement of related tourist experiences.

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The specialised consumption of creative tourism experiences and their presence in cultural and creative events and festivals, constitute examples of reflexive tourism consumption. Following the line of research about the specialised consumption of creative tourism experiences and events, this research aims to describe and account for examples where cultural and creative events/festivals represent opportunities for participatory experiences like workshops. The author developed a systematic review using SCOPUS database, to account for creative tourism experiences present at cultural and creative events/festivals. Thirteen documents from 2003 to 2019, were chosen and analysed as they represent the confrontation between cultural and creative events/festivals and creative tourism experiences principles. Findings show that authors don´t always refer directly to creative tourism experiences in the events and festival case studies analysed. Results were organized under two perspectives the ...

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Home > Books > Tourism - From Empirical Research Towards Practical Application

Interaction between Cultural/Creative Tourism and Tourism/ Cultural Heritage Industries

Submitted: 02 October 2015 Reviewed: 22 February 2016 Published: 04 May 2016

DOI: 10.5772/62661

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The chapter presents a review of the conceptions of cultural and creative tourism, their resources, objectives and their benefit and damage to the nature and the society. It is very important in the postmodern society to not only develop cultural tourism that is one of the most rapidly growing branches of economy, but also to employ cultural heritage and does not always develop the common heritage and tourism industry. This is an especially sore point because the common cultural heritage and tourism industry has an opportunity to create added financial value for cities, regions, and it also develops a responsible conserving cultural tourist. Creative tourism is different from cultural tourism in that it provides tourists with experiences through their direct participation in offered tourism activities. Another idiosyncratic feature is that creative tourism travel packs are created by not only tourism organisations, but also communities that have authentic tangible and intangible heritage. It is important to note that cultural tourism can transform into creative tourism. Heritage tourism is of great importance as well because it relates to the aforementioned types of tourism. ‘Red’ tourism can be distinguished as a type of heritage tourism that attracts tourists’ attention.

• Cultural/creative tourism
• heritage tourism
• cultural heritage
• tourism industry

Author Information

Dr. jurėnienė virginija *.

• Vilnius University, Lithuania

*Address all correspondence to: [email protected]

1. Introduction

In the twentieth-century modern global society, it is especially important to discuss the change of information, rapid pace of life, the ever-changing generations of people with the features particular to them; however, what is even more important are national identities and cultural differences which are crucial to stand out from the crowd by attracting the attention of other cultures, attracting investments and developing economy, strengthening culture and national identity as well as the image of a particular country. Tourism is a branch of economy which, according to the data of the World Tourism Organisation and UNESCO, should be developing very rapidly, especially the alternative branches of tourism, i.e., cultural and creative tourism.

In the second half of the twentieth century, a massive tourism industry was generated globally. Alongside this industry, cultural heritage industry operates. They both employ the same resources, i.e., cultural heritage and natural heritage; however, they do not always cooperate, even though they should.

2. Cultural, creative tourism and its industries

2.1. the concept of cultural tourism.

Generally, cultural tourism is classified according to motivational factors that indicate the dominating motif which promotes travelling. Based on the literature, the following six types of tourism are distinguished with regard to the goal of a trip: business tourism, professional tourism, leisure and entertainment tourism, cognitive-cultural tourism, sports tourism, rural tourism and wellbeing tourism [ 1 ].

Cultural tourism is especially closely related with special demands of tourists because the desire to explore, “test out” other authentic cultures, explore artefacts of extinct cultures, and the goal to familiarise with “other” cultures are an especially important motif [ 2 ]. This encourages developers of heritage tourism and heritage to create a complex outlook towards cultural artefacts: an object itself cannot function without its target environment because together they form cultural landscape, e.g., the urbanist landscape of Vilnius Old Town (Lithuania). In 2009, it was included into the UNESCO heritage list. The Kernavė (Lithuania) archaeological site is a unique territorial complex of archaeological and historical values (194.4 hectares) included in the UNESCO heritage lists in 2004.

Cultural tourism is equally important in aiming to preserve cultural and historical heritage: the higher number of tourists interested in cultural heritage, the more financial support it attracts. Cultural tourism remains important in creating a positive image of a country or city on a global scale.

Culture has always been the main goal of any trip since the Great Travels in the sixteenth century. In the twentieth century, a notion that culture was no longer the goal of tourism appeared. In any case, however, cultural values play a very important role on the scale of both heritage tourism and the entire tourism industry.

Over a certain period of time, the types of tourism became more concentrated and oriented towards a certain area. Traditional mass tourism which Hall [ 3 ] describes as a temporary, short-term trip to and from a certain place where the traveller does not live faces an alternative – tourism that satisfies specific needs of travellers, i.e., cultural, educational and other. According to McKercher [ 4 ], cultural tourism is undoubtedly the oldest type of the ‘most modern’ types of tourism: people have been travelling for the so-called cultural reasons from the Roman times; the difference is that they were not treated as exceptional travellers until today. Pilgrim travels, visits to historical locations, special events, festivals, and rituals have been known for ages. Today it is called alternative tourism ( Figure 1 ).

Figure 1.

Types of tourism. Source: created by the author based on reference 5 .

According to Newsome, Moore and Dowling [ 5 ], alternative tourism is responsible or specific interest-related tourism that includes small numbers of tourists under authentic, natural or cultural conditions, and that encompasses natural tourism (i.e., tourism in a natural environment), cultural tourism (i.e., heritage, religions, etc.), event tourism (i.e., sports, festivals, etc.), and other (i.e., educational, farm tourism and so on).

By the end of the twentieth century, cultural tourism becomes one of the main fields of academic research and topics of discussion.

The concept of new tourism can be described by employing one of Craik’s [ 6 ] statements about the recently popular forms of tourism that are more flexible, often complemented by the terms ‘communication-enriching’, ‘satisfying’, ‘adventurous’, and oriented towards individual needs. Satisfaction of cultural needs becomes not only a component of holidays, but also the main catalyst of travelling. Due to different conflicts in the world and xenophobia based on misunderstandings, cultural tourism may often help cultures to communicate and encourage mutual understanding. Knowing the culture of other nations, we understand each other better and experience a rising wish to cooperate. This promotes communication and integration [ 7 ].

It is easier to find descriptions of various activities of cultural tourism in scientific literature than the conception of it itself. These activities are often described as visiting historical structures and localities, museums, galleries, heritage territories, castles, churches, etc., and observing modern arts, sculptures or visual arts [ 8 ].

Table 1 introduces more definitions of cultural tourism.

Table 1.

Definitions of cultural tourism.

Source: created by the author.

UNESCO and the World Tourism Organisation describe cultural tourism as a trip that includes cultural and cognitive purposes. It is a way to know, improve, preserve and use cultural resources, landscape, architecture, artistic activities and unique features of a certain place. Creative tourism also aims at familiarising with a country yet creating immediate communication and cooperation with local citizens by obtaining experience of a certain kind.

2.1.1. Benefit of cultural tourism

Cultural tourism provides a sense of discovery, intercultural understanding, and enriches a personality. Cultural tourism helps to know the world, familiarise with the cultural diversity, traditions, customs, find out about different lifestyles, etc . Feeling, interacting, tasting, discovering, travelling, meeting, participating and finding out – all these elements comprise simple human well-being.

UNESCO supports cultural tourism as a measure to preserve cultural values . In a world of conflicts, cultural tourism for people divided by distrust and xenophobia may often help to communicate and lead to mutual understanding. Cultural tourism thus adds to the dialogue between cultures. Miscellaneous experience enriches an individual’s perception and educates their ability to understand and feel for others. People learn from one another and thus acquire diverse skills to solve their own problems. This at the same time promotes communication and integration.

In localities that are frequently visited by tourists, employment of residents increases and it becomes easier to keep people in the region that has a positive effect on the development of the country and the region . This improves the demographic situation because the youth are provided with more opportunities. This type of tourism provides many opportunities for not only tourists, but also the hosts of a country for better life conditions, and its activities encompass the entire target territory. Moreover, cultural tourism helps to create new ideas and invites local residents to cooperate, which in turn encourages economic and social development of a country [ 7 ].

Tourism is one of the channels via which countries may reveal their identity to the international society .

The European Commission supports cultural tourism as the main branch of industry that brings economic profit . Tourists tend to buy more local production. Moreover, ‘cultural’ tourists travel longer than local tourists and spend more money; thus, cultural tourism creates income for culture itself and supports it. Cultural tourism becomes the source of seeking income.

With regard to all these benefits of cultural tourism, it can be said that all of these cannot be achieved without management. Therefore, every country must invest large amounts of money into cultural tourism management. The aim of cultural tourism management is to create and introduce a unique product, and offer a consumer tourist an experience which would catch their attention on the basis of the following three main principles: preservation , utilisation , and promotion . According to them, the society can achieve other goals. First of all, it can encourage conservative use of values and develop and improve a personality, i.e., a new tourist who belongs to the postmodern, consumerist society must understand that cultural values should not only be consumed, but also be preserved for future generations ( Figure 2 ).

Figure 2.

Principles of cultural tourism. Source: created by the author.

Feedback of cultural tourism stands for positive response of foreign guests and tourists who encourage close friends to visit that locality and that country; it also stands for spreading the name of a country, locality or object on the global scale, attracting investments and finances, cultivating a country’s national heritage. International organisations such as UNESCO and ICOMOS see cultural tourism as one of the most important guarantees of subtle growth and heritage preservation.

2.2. Creative tourism

Creative tourism has developed from cultural tourism as the needs and wishes of people to discover something new changed.

Creative tourism is a new form of tourism that includes very high potential to change existing models of tourism and contribute to the appearance of new experiences. Creative tourism may help to encourage social and cultural development and the rise of local economy. This type of tourism includes not only incoming tourists into the life of a country, but also its society which creates and helps to preserve traditions and old values.

With regard to these factors that have determined the rise of creative tourism, a high degree of influence was created by the existence of the consumerist culture. People were forced to think about what was there and then, and that it had to be preserved. The appearance of creative tourism was mostly influenced by the altering thinking and a larger portion of free time, which influenced the human wish to discover something other than what had been discovered by mass tourists.

Table 2 introduces definitions of cultural tourism. The first definition of creative tourism was created in 2006 by UNESCO during the first international conference on creative tourism held in October 2006 in Santa Fe (USA).

Table 2.

Definitions of creative tourism. Source: created by the author.

The main idea of the concepts includes the tourist’s participation in activities and acquisition of authentic experience, which is the main aim of creative tourism. It can also be said that this form of tourism aims at not only a tourist’s participation, but also the participation of a local community. In cultural tourism, community plays a marginal role as only the most beautiful cultural routes and most popular locations are shown; in the case of creative tourism, it also encourages to leave mass tourism behind and aims at observing old traditions and authentic culture rather than what has already been discovered or is new.

Catriona Campbell, a creative tourism marketing specialist, also identifies this type of tourism with various activities and participation in them. It aims at introducing tourists with specific foreign types of arts, various authentic crafts and traditional food. Every tourist would be able to choose the most interesting activity. Even though people’s desires and goals would differ, in any case, they would have to communicate with local communities and learn from them [ 12 ]. Campbell emphasises that tourists would be provided with an opportunity to live in high quality residential locations. This statement can be interpreted as follows: tourists would be accommodated together with a community that organises various seminars and practice, which would create immediate communication and mutual cooperation. Living with the locals allows getting to know local culture fully, learning various crafts or just feeling like one is a part of the society [ 12 ].

Crispin Raymond [ 13 ] is one of the founders of creative tourism in New Zealand. He states that this type of tourism has existed since the beginning of tourism and that it has only acquired an individual title.

One of the most important features of creative tourism is informal communication. In order for the guests to become a part of the society, it is necessary to provide them with an opportunity to communicate in informal environment and create conditions that we live in. This would allow tourists to empathise and not be afraid of observing deeper traditions. Crispin Raymond distinguishes informal participation as the most important aspect, which other authors do not emphasise [ 13 ]. The aim is to make tourists feel at home and become closer to the community through various seminars and experiences. In Lithuania, an exceptional example of creative tourism that has become a well-known event of international inbound tourism is the mushroom festival entitled “Grybų karas Varėnoje” ( En. “Mushroom War in Varėna”). It takes place annually on the last Saturday of September. The festival includes entertainment and many activities for different segments of tourists.

Moreover, the concept of creative tourism is inseparable from the concept of creative city because cities that invite such tourists organise various seminars, teach them how to apply theoretical knowledge practically and allow them integrating into the local culture and are called creative cities.

2.2.1. Forms of creative tourism

Creative tourism could not do without creative development; therefore, the following two main ways of implementing creative tourism are distinguished:

1) Using creativity as one of the activities of tourism;

2) Using creativity as a certain background for tourism.

The first way is a more traditional model of creative tourism because it emphasises active participation of tourists in creative activities . More and more communities believe that their creative life and activities may make their city attractive for tourists even if they only want to look around instead of taking up activities.

Moreover, there are various types of experience and products that can be attributed to a creative tourist from active involvement into activities, learning specific skills, to looking around galleries and browsing creative product stores ( Table 3 ).

Table 3.

Typology of creative tourism experiences.

Source: reference 14 .

In the case of the second variant , creativity is used as a certain background only . In this case, tourist creativity is achieved in a less direct way than during participation in all activities. Here the aim is to create a common atmosphere which consists of the entire creative sector and environment. In order to attract as many tourists as possible not only creative spread of information is important, but it is also claimed that all of these may be used as a certain specific bait for people. An example of such creative background is cuisine of a certain country as it may attract tourists who want to taste the food and know various cooking secrets rather than those who want to learn to cook. Lithuania includes active routes of “Bread”, “Cheese”, “Beer” and “Wine” (these are thematic excursions during which tourists not only taste these products, but also participate in their production). A large number of tourists bake bread in Anyksciai (Lithuania).

2.2.2. Differences between cultural and creative tourism

Creative tourism anticipates attracting tourists by means of various cultural values, aims at developing the creative community, promoting development of creative industries, and local economics would be significantly improved from income obtained from tourism. The differences between cultural tourism and creative tourism are introduced in Table 4 .

Table 4.

Differences between cultural and creative tourism.

Source: created by the author based on reference [ 15 ].

As Table 4 shows, cultural tourism and creative tourism are based on different resources. Cultural tourism is oriented towards visiting famous structures, big events, and lively maintenance of culture. What is important here is to preserve what is more tangible and may bring more profit. On the other hand, the resources of creative tourism are related with intangible values such as learning, gaining experience and development of traditions. Contrary to the cultural tourist, the creative tourist does not have to see impressive historical buildings, places included in the UNESCO lists, or big events; the aim of creative tourism is to develop all cities and countries creatively.

Income and its distribution differ as well. Cultural tourism makes profit for the local economy through tourism taxes, fees for tickets to various museums, events and souvenirs; however, creative tourism steps over all these payments. In order for this type of tourism to exist, there is no need to collect various taxes and fees that go into the hands of officials and the country. Creative tourism encourages the development of local communities, and tourists provide financial support and pay for services directly to the community. Cultural tourism includes the major part of export is carried out in the outgoing market where travel organisers and agencies sell their products. Only a small part of cultural tourism is carried out in the country [ 15 ]. Moreover, very little profit from all the travel products sold goes directly to local communities because major part of taxes and profit must be given to the country. Contrary to cultural tourism, creative tourism directly contributes to improving local economy and the life of the community.

Another problem that separates these two types of tourism is the main aim of tourists, i.e., what tourists wish to achieve during a trip, if they just want to rest on the beach, see many churches or gain certain skills. A major part of tourists are the so-called ‘random cultural tourists’: these are tourists who use the product of cultural tourism with the aim of seeing a country, famous places and resting. The creative tourist travels because of motivation to see the country as well as learn something, participate in creative activities and communicate with local people. All these help to separate a common tourist from a creative tourist.

Cultural tourism is more oriented towards tangible values than creative tourism is. In this case, creative tourism is fully oriented towards intangible resources, their development and preservation; thus, tourists have different travelling goals. Some find it important to see the most famous buildings, beautiful nature, and others want to be included in the social life and learn from it.

2.2.3. Benefit and results of creative tourism

Creative tourism provides two-fold benefit, i.e., tangible and intangible. Tangible benefit from creative tourism may be easily measured as expenses before, during and after a trip, and those expenses are related with the trip and objects to be visited. Scholars R. Ohridska-Olson and S. Ivanov analyse creative tourism and point out its tangible benefit as follows: cultural capital, market development, innovations, preservation of cultural heritage, endurance, visibility of the producer, creation of work places, and export [ 15 ]. It is important to note that not only creative tourism, but also cultural tourism is a branch of economy like other types of tourism; thus, it is an important part of GDP of all countries.

Scholars R. Ohridska-Olson and S. Ivanov have distinguished intangible benefit generated by creative tourism as well, i.e., local identity and peculiarity, social capital, preservation of cultural values, human interaction and cultural exchange, and adding variety to local culture [ 15 ].

Creative tourism brings much benefit in every sense, helps to preserve both tangible and intangible values, preserves heritage, protects the old traditions, promotes a country abroad and creates new work places for residents, which is especially important in the context of the today’s recession. Moreover, it creates immediate cooperation between people of different nationalities and forms a new market of tourism. All these factors allow contributing to the improvement of local economy through income to local residents, companies and municipality budgets by means of various taxes.

2.3. Heritage tourism

The concept of cultural heritage has been developing over a long period of time. Throughout different periods, the concepts of monumental and resource culture heritage can be distinguished. The concept of monumental heritage can be traced back to the Renaissance concepts of monumento ( En. monument) and antichitá ( En. antique). Since the twentieth century, the change of this concept has been influenced by a change of the concept of an ethnic country, the forming international society, international law, legislative processes, processes of industrialisation and the historical events of this century that have shown that cultural heritage is fragile and irreversible. The second concept of cultural heritage formed several decades ago. According to this concept, heritage should not be identified with memorial signs because it plays a different role, i.e., it is a foundation on which modern culture – and inseparable part of human lifestyle and environment – grows and develops [ 16 ]. The concept of resources is used to define this conception of heritage. According to this conception, if heritage is defined by resources of the past, then they are limited and irreversible, which is why they should be preserved and spread onto future generations. The change of the conception of heritage was determined by various legal acts where the meaning and understanding of heritage underwent specification and explanation.

Recently, heritage is more and more often seen as a process which objects undergo or as a marketing tool [ 17 ]. It is mostly valuable to include those objects into the lists of heritage that are seen as valuable by people; therefore, much depends on the outlook of people and their disposition.

According to the UNESCO classification of heritage, there are seven main categories of heritage : nature , landscape , monuments , artefacts , activity , people and locations . None of these categories are perfectly defined because there are many objects of heritage that could be attributed to several categories. One of them is cultural heritage. According to the Charter for the Conservation of Places of Cultural Heritage of New Zealand, cultural heritage includes regions, landscape and features, structures, constructions and gardens, archaeological and traditional locations, sacred places and monuments that have long-term value and can be legally assessed, that teach people about the past and the culture of those who lived before, that give context to the identity of the society according to which people relate themselves to the world and to those who lived in the past, that provide the modern world with diversity and contrast and are a measure according to which people can compare modern achievements [ 18 ].

All cultural heritage objects are divided into intangible (movable) and tangible (immovable) ( Figure 3 [ 19 ]).

Figure 3.

Classification of cultural heritage. Source: created by the author based on reference 19 .

Intangible cultural heritage was first defined in 2003 during the UNESCO General Conference, 32nd session in the adopted Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage . In 2003, UNESCO announced the tradition of the Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian Song festivals as a masterpiece of human oral and intangible cultural heritage.

On the international scale, the conception of tangible cultural heritage was first validated in the Convention concerning the Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage adopted during the 1972 UNESCO General Conference. According to this convention, tangible cultural heritage stands for intangible objects that remain from the past and related locations; they have a historical, archaeological, mythological, memorial, religious, architectural, urban, artistic and scientific value ( Convention concerning the Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage 1972).

The following are the objects that belong to tangible cultural heritage:

• Monuments (architectural, monumental sculptures and paintings, archaeological elements and structures, inscriptions that have exceptional value from the perspectives of art, history and science);

• Groups of buildings (groups of separate and related buildings whose architecture, homogeneity or situation in the landscape gives them exceptional universal value from the perspectives of history, art and science);

• Places (human or mixed nature and human creations, territories; also, archaeological locations that have exceptional universal value from the perspectives of history, aesthetics, ethnology and anthropology).

Tangible cultural heritage includes ensembles (isolated or related groups of buildings whose architecture also relates to the landscape), well-known places (creations of human beings and nature) and monuments divided further into the heritage of fine arts, archaeology and architecture which is especially important when analysing the aspects of the applicability of tangible cultural heritage.

According to M. Robinson, the concept of cultural heritage within the context of cultural tourism has changed and is still constantly changing [ 20 ]. Former industrial cities are now frequently visited by tourists. For instance, in Germany, the Ruhr region, former steel production and coal mine regions have become a tourist attraction network with museums, modern art galleries, publicly displayed works of art, parks and other facilities necessary for relaxation and leisure time of tourists. Moreover, locations of social trauma and former military conflicts are more and more frequently visited by tourists of any generation. Foreign tourists prefer going to residential districts in Belfast, North Ireland, where they can see colourful drawings left by members of militarised organisations; these drawings tell stories about not so old violence of political-religious groups in that location [ 21 ].

The application of cultural heritage objects to cultural tourism is more and more developed in different countries; cultural tourism is the most rapidly growing market segment. For example, in Finland, just as in the entire region of the Baltic States, castles are perceived as local, regional or national monuments and function as museums that have become tourist attraction centres. Currently, Finnish castles join local and international networks. Such networks include cooperation between castles and museums, local councils, companies and schools. Most of the exhibitions are directed towards the young visitors: “Heroes or Villains?” in the Turku castle; “The Good, the Bad and the Cool” in the Hamme castle. Another form of activities – happenings – introduces multidimensional local history, e.g., events “Epiphany of the Three Castles”, “European Days” and special “Holiday Fair Days” [ 22 ]. Examples of application of various cultural heritage objects can be found in every country of the world where tourism becomes one of the main reasons and instruments in preserving heritage.

As the conception of cultural tourism is gaining popularity in Lithuania, the local government is beginning to value and cultivate heritage as an asset that is capable of helping to develop tourism and national identity.

Moreover, globalisation is gathering momentum, efforts to protect and nurture national cultural idiosyncrasy, identity and architectural heritage are becoming stronger. The preserved past and modern architecture directly reflects the state of a country, the progress of its culture and technics; it also influences the cultural consciousness of the society and social psychology. It is important to manage and preserve architectural heritage because it determines the level progress and sociability of the society and ensures social and economic stability of the country (Table 5 [ 20 ]).

Table 5.

Benefit provided by heritage.

Source: created by the author based on reference [ 20 ].

According to Graham, heritage may be employed to realise the role of at least another three aspects that are important from the perspective of marketing [ 23 ].

the red tourism (trips to ‘active’ communism countries);

communist heritage tourism (trips in the former communist countries and the former republics of the Soviet Union) [ 26 ].

This conception has been formed by the scientist of the University of Bucharest A. Caraba [ 24 ] who claims that the heritage of all communist countries (both former and existing) cannot be analysed on the basis of the same method because their histories are very different, especially because the European communist countries (excluding the former republics of Soviet Union) possessed regimes that have left a big scar in the societies of those countries, which in turn aggravates research of that particular period and objective evaluation of the communist period. According to the aforementioned author, China has experienced different fate; therefore, the communist heritage of this country is analysed separately; this is the first direction of Soviet heritage studies that comprises the absolute majority of all the studies and publications on the topic of the Soviet period [ 24 ]. The second direction which is mostly focused on cultural heritage tourism analyses the regime of such countries like North Korea or Cuba and its influence on tourism.

Discussions on the cultural value of objects – acknowledgement-negation, peculiarity-foreignness, change-permanency, etc. – are especially important in evaluating the Soviet architectural heritage. Emphasising the meaningful aspect allows making an assumption that most of the problems that arise from assessing architecture from that period are mostly related to the architectural duality rather than issues of artistic value.

Therefore, in order to achieve a more objective assessment of architecture, it is very important to emphasise the viewpoint that the impact of the Soviet past is not one-sided, i.e., despite the extremely political assessment of Soviet architecture, the architectural assets of that entire period cannot be bluntly related to the connotations of ‘alien/strange/foreign’.

It is especially important to note that turning the architecture of the second half of the twentieth century into heritage is related to not only ideological context of the Soviet period, but also with factors that are more shared when a psychological problem of assessing the twentieth century architecture is faced: the society often fails to see the specific aesthetic value in these structures that were built not that long ago. Because this construction period is still alive in many people’s memory, they do not feel any sentiments they should feel if they wanted to preserve them [ 25 ].

As Lithuania faces a strictly conservative attitude towards cultural values (cultural values that are newer than 50 years can be included into the registry of cultural values only as an exception), other similar European countries (neighbouring Latvia, Estonia, Poland, also Romania, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, former Yugoslavian countries, Albania) have been actively researching the impact of the Soviet period, the communist regimes and the benefit of its heritage on the development of the so-called ‘red tourism’ for almost 15 years, and they have also amended the architectural heritagisation practice [ 26 ].

2.4. Significance of the interaction between cultural tourism and cultural heritage

On the one hand, cultural tourism gives the background and meaning to the existing heritage institutions. On the other hand, it causes threat to their existence. In fact, the main task is to find the balance between heritage and cultural tourism.

Most often, the experts in the management of cultural tourism and cultural heritage act separately. The dialogue between them seems not to be taking place even when there are common interests. Instead of working together and producing really good products they collaborate too little.

The world tourism organisation claims that the specialists of cultural tourism and heritage might make an agreement useful to both sides. Thus, the objects of heritage would receive necessary financing for their restoration and become available for tourists, and cultural tourism would become fully meaningful: it would evoke the feeling of discovery, intercultural knowledge and initiate the spiritual richness of a personality.

The development of cultural tourism is one of the main reasons for heritage protection. The facts state that sooner or later some objects of heritage (for instance, Lithuanian mansions or parks), if they are not available for tourists and a wide society, get ruined. They are damaged by people and various natural phenomena. The heritage that does not bring any economic profit is not restored and looked after. In this case, the local community loses respect for the local cultural values and symbols. On the other hand, the objects of heritage that are applied for cultural tourism are restored and looked after. The managers of heritage take care that the objects are properly presented to the society. The means obtained from cultural tourism are used for their maintenance and repair. However, the main benefit received from cultural tourism is that it gives an opportunity to get acquainted with the history of a country and/or a particular locality, which most probably they would not ever come across. In such a way, the image of a locality or a state/country is constructed. R. Dapkus posits that cultural heritage is one of the essential elements of the image and development of the country or region [ 27 ]. Cultural tourism is also claimed to be an important factor for the protection of cultural traditions. More than that, cultural tourism may improve the quality of life. It should be stressed that visiting very important cultural, historical and natural places is strictly controlled: various restrictions have been determined, and the schemes of the locality management have been worked out.

2.5. Culture tourism industry

In 1969, during a conference in Brussels, the declaration of cultural tourism was adopted [ 28 ]. This document encouraged to accept the Helsinki declaration (1996) on cultural heritage in Europe. These documents were the first to identify cultural tourism as a separate part of the tourism industry.

Nevertheless, the world has not agreed on a common and universally recognised definition. ICOMOS recommends that cultural tourism is defined by the importance of tourism, tourist motivation, experience and purpose so that we can see a full set of elements of cultural tourism, which will reveal how to interrelate tourism and heritage.

Cultural tourism is very much related to the specific needs of tourists because the desire to explore, try other authentic cultures, examine artefacts of extinct cultures, and aims to feel the “other” cultures is a very important reason. So, one can argue that cultural tourism is a purposeful journey during which the tourists get acquainted not only with the other party’s cultural environment (heritage, lifestyle, traditions, customs, values, history, art, etc.), but also actively participate in various cultural events that provide new experiences and excitement [ 2 ]. Cultural tourists must travel through the land in order to have the opportunity to observe and understand the changes in human activities and natural resources over time and access nature in the region [ 28 ].

National or regional cultural tourism development has been driven by economic factors. The economic impact of cultural tourism relies on earned income. K. Meethan [ 29 ] argues that cultural tourism, unlike other forms of tourism and development tools, has one unique advantage – this form of business requires relatively low capital investment and generates much higher return – the local production increases because of tourism activities closely related to other economic branches.

Foreign tourists enjoy the supply created by local businesses, use natural resources and pay for utility services, etc. All of these have a positive effect on the local economy. Tourist spending increases domestic trading volumes, financial revenues, creating jobs, helping to collect more taxes and encouraging other economic activities. Foreign tourist expenditure-based economy can be regarded as a real proof that tourism has a significant impact on economic growth ( Figure 4 ).

Figure 4.

Tourism impact on economy growth. Source: reference 25 .

As it can be seen, the basic elements of tourism supply are the capital investments, increasing labour productivity, efficient use of sites and innovative technologies. As a result, tourism is seen as highly capital-intensive economic activities. This causes the complex structure of tourism: tourism development cannot be separated from the overall national economic development because the investment in tourism is closely related to investments in other sectors of the economy [ 30 ]. So, tourism is becoming more economically important in promoting the development of structurally weaker regions. Therefore, cultural tourism development should be encouraged because of its specific advantages, especially in environment, transport, agriculture, local business, culture, education and scientific fields.

2.6. When is the industry of cultural heritage formed?

The investigators of heritage maintain that the main circulation and consumption of historical objects and knowledge occur and undergo growing when traditions and collective memory are dying out and globalisation as well as mass or pop culture expand with the development of information technologies. However, in various countries, these processes take different directions. For instance, in the United Kingdom, the appearance of the heritage industry is paradoxically related with the economic decline when the past is viewed as a better entity than the chaotic present and obscure tomorrow. The products of heritage industry that appeared under the described conditions turn to be more advanced than the authentic ones since they were revived or created for people and adapted to their demands. Heritage industry has its own labour market. It requires designers, managers and constructors. Unfortunately, it does not show any demand for archaeologists or historians.

The emergence of heritage industry is closely related with the so-called heritage boom (i.e., a rapidly growing interest in heritage) that is a necessary condition for the formation of the industry of heritage, since any industry must meet the demands of consumers. With the growth of heritage demand, a favourable opportunity to develop the industry of heritage emerges. Western Europe has developed two theories of the heritage boom.

The first theory relates the heritage boom with the growth of the purchasing power of the potential consumers (i.e., with the growth of the country’s economic power; more enriched consumers of cultural production appear from a wider spectrum of social layers) and the fact of the heritage protection growing into entertainment of the elite (concerts, exhibitions, etc.). For instance, from 1998 onwards in Lithuania, similar to other countries of the European Union, heritage faces mass consumption, but not exclusively for the educational purposes since the very economic situation turns to be favourable for heritage industry. The traditional Lithuania heritage has been rediscovered, and the search for the novel means of heritage protection has been activated: the ideas of living history, ‘live’ archaeology and practical learning of the ancient crafts get more and more popular. In Lithuania, the intensiveness of the desire for the reconstruction of an entirely destroyed heritage may be illustrated by the reconstruction of the Royal Palace in Vilnius (Lithuania). In addition, it is marked by the establishment of the Park of Soviet Monuments (1998) (Druskininkai, Lithuania), the organisation of the so-called days of living history, ‘live’ archaeology and ‘live’ craft learning, the erection of the restaurant nets offering traditional dish heritage from 1999 onwards. It shows that the Lithuanians have rediscovered the importance of the history of Lithuania and its heritage and have started showing a considerable interest in it.

The second theory discusses the heritage boom in relation to the nostalgia for the past evoked by the economic recession, social decline and spiritual decadence. The analysis of the economic indices reveals that in Lithuania the highest inflation took place in 1991–1993; the lowest expenses were observed in 1993; the smallest alterations of the gross domestic product, if compared to the earlier years, in 1992–1994 and the smallest number of students in 1994–1995. A more distinct leap in the number of museums and their visitors was observed only in 1997.

With the growth of economy, the consumer purchase power is growing, and consumers spend more time and money for their leisure activities and cultural explorations. These are favourable conditions for the formation of heritage industry. Moreover, it initiates the improvement of culture financing by the government which in turn helps to increase the number of museums and their visitors.

Hence it might be argued that in Lithuania consumption has been growing rapidly. It has been determined by the postindustrial, postmodern consuming alterations of life conditions and perspectives. Heritage consumption (by developing tourism or in other ways) is a part of this insatiable growth. Researchers claim that since the number of cultural heritage tourists will be growing nearly in every country, they will consume more and more various heritage products, and the variety of heritage areas will also expand [ 17 ].

The market of cultural heritage reinforces the awareness of society. There is no doubt that it is a fruitful vehicle for the expansion of the social and economic wealth of a country or region. Cultural tourism also encourages preserving the universal authenticity and uniqueness of history, customs and traditional values, i.e., it shows the direct relationship with cultural heritage.

To sum up, it might be claimed that in the age of globalisation cultural tourism based on the consumption of cultural heritage is one of the commercial activities demonstrating the highest growth all over the world. At present, cultural tourism is one of the most attractive forms of tourism that may offer many interesting discoveries and novelties. However, popular culture and mass consumption has a growing impact on further development of cultural tourism.

3. Conclusions

Creative tourism is related with cultural tourism yet they possess many differences. Creative tourism is oriented towards the development of creativity, conservation of traditions, education, and is more directed towards individual clients or small groups, whereas cultural tourism focuses on visiting known structures, various events, and is oriented towards mass tourists.

Creative tourism is important in that it focuses on the past, present and future. What becomes of importance is not only the final products, but also the entire participation in the creative process. Passive consumption of cultural products becomes active through communication, education and participation, and the resources of creative tourism are renewable.

The industry of heritage in Western Europe started forming when heritage became a product of mass production; it was started to use in the entertainment business, and business began using heritage in marketing. Nowadays, the industry of heritage is a part of creative industry, even though it is slightly different from other industries of culture: heritage is not only hereditary, but it is also created, constantly reproduced and realised. The process during which inheritance becomes heritage is frequently called interpretation. Resources, i.e., inheritance, become heritage by means of interpretation. Inheritance is interpreted tuning it into heritage, and the object of heritage is interpreted once again introducing it to the society. Only then inheritance does become (or not become) heritage.

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© 2016 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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Alexandra Figueiredo is a journalist and communication consultant with a postgraduation in Psychological Assessment. She’s specialized in health journalism and in medical and scientific consultancy. Worked as a radio newscaster and was journalist at SIC Notícias, Expresso, and in two RTP programs, between others. Also coordinated a health program for RTP TV channel. She won several poetry contests, having published poems. She was director of a solidarity association chaired by the former Minister of Health Ana Jorge and was press advisor for the former President of the Portuguese Republic, Dr. Jorge Sampaio, during his time as Ambassador of Tuberculosis in the World. You can follow Alexandra on Instagram .

Do we really know some of the cities we have visited and where we have followed the usual tourist guides?

Did you ever stop to consider whether, after visiting monuments, museums, landscapes and having ticked all the boxes from your “check-list”, you really knew that city?

In fact, more and more tourists question themselves about the type of traditional tourism that they do, since the mass tourism model does not provide information about which places and what those living there have to offer beyond what is evident to them. It is for this reason that an increasing number of more demanding tourists want to absorb things which traditional tourism cannot provide them. On the other hand, beyond the fact that it does not satisfy them anymore, mass tourism is starting to bring more harm than benefit to the destinations. We should therefore reflect on this question.

1. What is ‘Creative tourism’?

The term Creative tourism was coined in 2000 by Crispin Raymond and Greg Richards and was born with the purpose of creating a more fulfilling and engaging way of travelling through diverse activities in the community one visits.

Tourism which offers visitors the opportunity to develop their creative potential through active participation in courses and learning experiences, which are characteristic of the holiday destination where they are taken. Definition of Creative Tourism by Crispin Raymond and Greg Richards

Although this trend is not new, since for a long time the most demanding travellers have dived into learning experiences during their holidays, researchers defend that this form of tourism represents a strong trend in the industry of tourism.

Richards has been stating that there was “a transition of travellers who not only want to learn more about the culture that is represented in museums and monuments, but also to appreciate the everyday culture, considered to be more “real and true”.

Quite often, the ones responsible for the promotion of destinations would bet on building museums and organising massive festivals to attract more tourism, but costs skyrocketed and not always did such ideas result in financial gain.

The concept of frequent travellers has also broadened, as it is now more common for people to look for more active and immersive experiences, in which they will feel more included and participative.

Anyone backing Creative Tourism thinks of a type of tourism that won’t restrict itself to tangible resources, valuing intangible experiences, just like the lifestyle, knowing the identity of the host country, its lifestyle and the type of connection that they establish with themselves and with different cultures.

2. How to enjoy creative tourism and what are its advantages?

In case you want to understand more about this type of tourism, and still have not tried it, some possible routes for anyone willing to enjoy a different culture are going to Italy to do some homemade pasta, be a DJ in Ibiza, learn how to dance in Cuba or taste some wine from a Portuguese winemaker and learn how the different wines are produced.

In this kind of tourism, locals and visitors alike are involved in a new way of travelling which stands out by the creation of touristic products made together.

The local community, as a participant, ends up helping in diversifying the tourism offer, thus creating a strategy that generates revenue without the need for much investment, besides that of creativity and people’s interest.

Ver esta publicação no Instagram Uma publicação partilhada por Creative Tourism Network® (@creativetourism)

Small entrepreneurs become more proactive and are more likely to succeed as they become able to create large infrastructures from simple and creative ideas that capture the tourists’ attention.

The cultural traditions of a destination will therefore be valued and more easily preserved, which also strengthens the locals’ self-esteem, not to mention the effective incentive to the local economy.

Another relevant point is the better geographical distribution of the flux of visitors all throughout the year. It was understood that the investment in intangible attractions often prevents seasonality, which has recently become a problem across many destinations.

Such experiences can also promote inclusion of many geographical areas not often included in the conventional ones that usually feature in the touristic guides, resulting in a geographic distribution that helps reduce the strain felt by the more visited destinations, whether cultural or natural, while also distributing financial resources by more areas of the territory.

Creative tourism is also much more fun, since it tends to be more interactive, socially egalitarian as well as more environmentally friendly than mass tourism.

3. Exploitation of poor communities: the other side of the coin

It should be noted, however, that there aren’t only positive sides. This type of tourism also came across people who can use it in a negative way; for instance, the attractions where traditional populations are clearly exploited, like native tribes, or places such as favelas (Brazilian slums), which are transformed into tourist attractions by initiatives external to the local population.

In such cases, the profit from the activities does not remain in the local community and could even damage the destination concerned either in the way how it is seen or in how the community that does not interact or does not really gain from such initiatives. This could even lead to the development of an “industry” that keeps local populations in such precarious conditions as to prevent them from “depriving themselves from the characteristics” that made them a tourist attraction, even if it is not.

Unfortunately, exploitation is common in many cases, but it does not represent the phenomenon itself, which has many advantages, and so it must manage well what it is all about and which was here presented.

In conclusion, I suggest you check the Creative Tourism Network , an international organisation that connects several Creative Tourism initiatives from around the world. If you would like to know more about these networks, check out their website, where you can also find a vast offer of books and articles on the subject.

Learning new things is worthwhile, and for this reason Creative Tourism has become a peculiar way of taking part in initiatives that will make us culturally richer and more interested in the most real experiences and traditions of each people.

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