More than sun, beach and heritage:
innovating Mediterranean tourism through
creative tourism. Interactions, co-operation,
competitiveness and economic
development.
M. Teresa Fernández Fernández
Rey Juan Carlos University (Madrid, Spain)
Abstract
This paper analyses the role of creative tourism as a source of competitiveness
and locate its effects within the Mediterranean area. Creative tourism implies
that both producers and consumers design and produce the service in
interaction and that there is a knowledge transmission.
Since creative tourism is a very recent activity, both demand and supply
features are studied showing that on the demand side creative tourism comes
to meet the highest human needs (socialization or self-actualization) and on the
supply that it is subject to differentiation.
In the last part of this work the state-of-art and impact of creative tourism in
Mediterranean countries is studied, making some proposals to achieve it.
1. Introduction
Increasing competition between regions and cities for tourist resources is giving
a more and more important role to creative tourism as an opportunity for
development. This paper describes in a first part the concept and features of
creative tourism and explains the main characteristics of its demand and supply.
The second part analyses creative tourism in Mediterranean countries. The
regional focus has been chosen because Mediterranean countries have a big
tradition in tourism, because they have a common history and identity, and
because tourism can be a key factor to promote competitiveness and contribute
to the Euro-Mediterranean free-trade area.
The paper starts with some of the recent and still scarce literature on creative
tourism, trying to establish a concept which can differentiate it from other types
of tourism. This definition can be broken out into different ways to approach the
concept of creative tourism: as a service, as a concept suitable only for certain
demand according to personal motivations and needs, as a result of an
evolution and as a production process which implies many activities interactions
not only with those traditionally linked tourism.
In section three an empirical analysis stands out the main features of demand
and supply. The demand analysis is the result of a survey carried out by
interviews and contains many interesting aspects about motivations, spending
and factors conditioning creative tourism. The supply side analysis explains the
market structure of creative tourism.
Section four is devoted to creative tourism in Mediterranean countries trying to
know how this kind of tourism can contribute to the development and
competition of the Mediterranean area, thus building a common identity and
taking advantage of the tourism experience in the area, to the synergies trying
to make traditional tourism resources more intangible. In this sense, the role of
authorities in marketing cities and places and the use of new technologies is
seen as very important to give knowledge and promote this kind of tourism.
Some case studies are analised.
2. Creative tourism: a multi-approach concept
The concept of creative tourism is very recent and references are still scarce
and not always coincide because it is a subject difficult to grasp, it is a product
of innovation although to some extent it means travel more than tourism.
Creative tourism is wide in activities, wide in motivations and moves between
the frontiers of culture and experience.
Since the adjective “creative” could relate to the Anglo-Saxon concept of
“creative industries” first addressed in the 1990’s in United Kingdom when
referring to arts, culture, design, music, film, and tourism; Power and
Gustafsson (2005) choose the concept “experience industries” intending “to
shift focus away from the sort of producer perspective that usually dominates
industrial policy to a consumer perspective that emphasises the importance in
the knowledge economy of understanding consumer needs and preferences
(KK-Stiftelsen, 2000 )”. Thus, tourism is included within experience industries in
the Swedish sectoral classification (KK-Stieftelsen, 2003).
The Creative Cities Network and UNESCO working group in their preparation
for the first creative tourism conference say that creative tourism is “travel
directed toward an engaged and authentic experience, with participative
learning in the arts, heritage, or special character of a place, and it provides a
connection with those who reside in this place and create this living culture
(Creative Cities Network and UNESCO, 2006).
Power and Scott (2004) say that the exact definition is not so relevant since
“cultural”, “creative” or “experience” industries are concerned with the creation
of products whose value rest primarily on their symbolic content which
stimulates the experiential reaction of consumers in several ways.
For this work and trying to be practical, the term creative tourism is near the
definition of the Creative Cities Network and UNESCO working group, but
emphasizing that what confers to creative tourism its identity is the close
interaction between producers and consumers, who can interchange their roles,
the sense of authenticity and symbolic charge or knowledge owned by a place
and the transmission process of these knowledge, symbols or values which
allow the tourist to acquire a new personal skill or capacity.
The following approaches stem from the definition:
2.1 Creative tourism as a service where





Both producer and consumer, can play sometimes each other’s role.
That is the case for example of documented cases of tourist going to
Namibia, who have learnt the local craftsmanship. These tourist have
made their own artisan creations according to the local traditions and the
local people have sold them in a process of mutual benefit: an intangible
one for those who have acquired a new skill and a material one for the
local tribes.
There is a double intangibility due to interaction and feed-back and
participation of tourist which can add his values, experience, ways of
behavior, etc., every creative service can be different
Due to the use of new technologies this kind of tourism can be
sometimes be delivered or consumed in the absence of physical contact
between the two parts of the relationship and no simultaneity is needed
between the two acts. For example, nowadays it is possible to visit
museums through internet with computer applications that have been
prepared in advance. The visit can be all the creative you want by
choosing different itineraries or complementing it with other internet
resources.
It implies the transmission of knowledge or skills by the use of tangible
creations but more importantly of intangible resources like experience,
quotidian know-how or values.
Creative tourism gathers a wide array of diversified activities according to
the personal needs to satisfy. These sub-types of creative tourism are
developed in interaction with other economic activities which can be the
known as creative ones: music, theater, films or not, like gastronomy,
agriculture and nature or manufacturing. In every economic activity there
is a potential source for creative tourism. Both aspects are widely
explained in the following subsections 2.2, 2.3. and 2.4
2.2 An special kind of demand: the creative tourism seeks for the
satisfaction of the most elevated human needs
Creative tourists, who should more appropriately be defined as travelers, search
for the satisfaction of the most elevated human being’s needs more elevated
needs according to Maslow’s hierarchy (Maslow, 1943) like love and belonging,
esteem and self-actualization.
2.3 Creative tourism as an evolutionary process leading to a post-modern
way of production and consumption based on customization
Richards, G. and Wilson, J. (2006) see creative tourism as “a solution to the
serial reproduction of culture” as a result of “the rise of skilled consumption, the
importance of identity formation and the acquisition of cultural capital in (post)
modern society”. It is also more pronounced due to the globalization process
which tends to homogenize tourism products and visitors’ behavior all around
the world. These authors stand the challenge for places to convert physical
heritage or cultural spectacles into more intangible resources where tourist are
no longer passive consumers but active participants. Thus, creative tourism is
the latest outcome of the evolution of the tourist activity. All changes are
supposed to modify things and add new things. However, creative tourism is the
result of a backwards evolution, searching for the origins. In this process the
tourist becomes a traveler as it happened in the beginning of the tourist activity
searching for authenticity. As a result, creative tourism is no longer a serial
tourism, but a tourism adapted to each particular situation that depends on
producer and consumer (whether they play the two functions), the place, the
moment and the tangible and intangible resources.
Figure 1
Evolution of the tourism production system
First travelers
Beach & Sun Tourism
Individual tourism
Cultural tourism
Mass tourism
Experience tourism
Creative tourism
Customised tourism
Source: own elaboration
This can be the result of a post-modern production system for tourism
characterized according to Bell (1973) by the preeminence of professionals and
technical people with university studies as the core of the post-industrial society,
as well as a change of values in the society in transition from an “economist
model” to a “sociologist one” tending to a more humanistic society abandoning
the concept of people as machines. Therefore, tourism patterns are changing to
more specialized activities where symbols, values, knowledge, experience and
traveler’s participation are very important.
2.4 Creative tourism in relation with tourism and with other economic
activities as source of development.
Creative tourism not necessarily implies performing creative activities (Arts,
Music, etc.) or shouldn’t only be provided by tourist agents. Since it implies that
the tourist can acquire or develop skills only in that very concrete place or that
he can live like this place people, it is interesting to know how economic
activities can be linked to creative tourism to see how this kind of tourism can
generate spillovers and economic development. Some of these interrelations
can be featured in box 1, which has been built up according to the NACE codes.
To set an example useful to distinguish creative tourism from different kinds of
tourism we could take: theater (services, section R). Cultural tourism could
consist of visiting a place and been told about its tradition in theater literature
and theater festivals, experience tourism could be watching a theater
performance in this city and creative tourism could be being taught to sew and
design the costumes for the theater performance in that city which in this case
implies also a manufacturing activity from section C.
Box 1
Interaction between creative tourism and the rest of economic activities
PRIMARY SECTOR:
NACE Sections A and B
Creative tourists will learn to grow plants, farming, fishing or extract gold in rivers (for this last
example, visit the Tankavaara village in Finland): www. tankavaara. fi. Linked to rural tourism.
SECONDARY SECTOR
Section C: Manufacturing. Creative tourists can visit enterprises to learn about production
processes. The more traditional and less complex are the more suitable they seem. For
example: cheese making, manufacture of products of wood and paper, textiles and fur, printing,
fabrication of perfumes and soap, tools, boats, jewelry, traditional musical instruments and
traditional games and toys. It would be linked to enterprise tourism
Section D: Energy and water
Courses on how to maximize the use of resources to minimize the environmental impacts
Courses on traditional waste forms and composting. Linked to rural tourism.
Section F: Building
To participate in the reconstruction of a village. Linked to: rural tourism, cooperation tourism,
enterprise tourism
TERTIARY SECTOR: SERVICES
Section G: Trade and vehicle reparation. For example: Selling fish in a Mediterranean village.
Section H: Transport and postal activities. A real example could be how to manage a
traditional means of transport: a donkey in Mijas, Málaga (Spain).
Another example could be how to be an ancient Roman courier and discover Mediterranean
cities
Section I: Accomodation and food and beverage service activities
Creative hostelling: as a real example in Marrakech there are some hotels who offer regional
cooking courses
Section J: Publishing activities, programming and broadcasting activities,
telecommunications, computer programming and information service activities. Creative
tourism activities publication, especially creative tourism itineraries using new technologies
Section K: Financial and insurance activities. Example: insurance for creative tourism
particularly adventure tourism
Section L: Real Estate. Real Estate activities for creative tourism
Section M: Professional, scientific and technical activities. Real example: how science
allows to art creation using fractals, microscope images. Other examples: legal advice for nonconventional creative activities which could turn out to be illegal. The action of advertising
creative tourism. Veterinary activities in horse-riding courses
Section N: Administrative and support service activities.
For example renting video-tapes to support creative activities, or searching qualified employees
for creative tourism activities, or travel agencies specialized in creative tourism or landscape
activities
Section O: Public Administration and defence; compulsory social security. For example:
regulation of religious creative tourism by the Public Administration
Section P: Education. Creative tourism is a good way to learn for students and as a
complementary activity in Congresses
Section Q: Human health and social work activities: Social workers help people to perform
creative tourism activities for their social integration.
Section R: Arts, entertainment and recreation. Creative tourism related to artistic performing
activities. For some authors this should be the only and real section.
Section S: Other services. Creative tourism as an activity of membership association
Section T: Household employers. They should provide information on local traditions and
creative activities for the non-local house owner.
Section U: Activities of extraterritorial organization and bodies. They can advise creative
travelers about some aspects.
Source: own elaboration
To sum up, it can be said that creative tourism is a multidisciplinary activity both
conceptually and practically which can be approached from Economics;
Environmental Sciences; History, Arts and Culture; Sociology, Anthropology
and Psichology among others.
3. DEMAND AND SUPPLY OF CREATIVE TOURISM: MAIN FEATURES
3.1 Demand of creative tourism
Little research has been carried out about the features of the demand side for
creative tourism. For this work I have interviewed 28 people to establish their
pattern of consumption of creative tourism. In a first moment I thought to go to
the airport to make the survey but after that I considered that the difficulty of the
concept could make that an stressful tourist could not understand it. So I have
taken varied people amongst my friends, relatives and workers in Spain or
abroad of my personal surroundings. Except for three cases I haven’t sent them
the survey but interviewed them, explaining carefully the concept of creative
tourism. This way of obtaining the information is also interesting because it has
allowed me to situate every person within his context, having thus an economic,
cultural, anthropological and societal approach, which really has an influence in
everyone’s perception of creative tourism. I consider and must say it, that by
now, with the little development and recentness of creative tourism, this is the
only way for obtaining information. They are men (53.4%) and women, from
ages between 22 up to 70, with very different backgrounds and civil and
professional status, and some of them foreigners (39,3%).
They have been asked about their past creative tourism experience and future
desire and possibility for doing it (this last one in Mediterranean countries) and
about their motivations to practice this kind of tourism as well as their spending
and time duration in a normal holiday and in a creative one.
The creative tourism pattern is shown first in table 1:
Table 1
Creative tourism pattern of interviewed people (%)
Desire to do creative tourism
Desire and possibility of doing creative tourism
Has had at least one creative tourism experience
As a consumer
of which it was
an intended creative tourism activity
creative tourism derived from other activity
As a producer
of which % were paid for it
Source: own elaboration with interviews data
85.7
82.1
78.6
71.4
76.19
71.4
46.4
30.8
As it can be seen, there is a big desire to do creative tourism (85.7%), though
someone has it difficult due to work reasons. A great deal of the interviewed
people has had a creative tourism experience. It is also interesting to say that
as a consumer, 71.4% states that at least one of their creative experiences was
derived from another economic activity. These comments support what said in
the previous section about the importance of interaction between creative
tourism and other economic activities.
It is significant as well that only 30.8% of the creative tourists taking the role of
producers where paid. This indicates that informal economy is very present in
creative tourism and I would like to set an example. Where I was one year old,
we were spending our holidays in a little village on the East Mediterranean
coast of Spain, near Alicante and Valencia. My father, a metal professional,
decided to enjoy a fishing night on a fishers’ boat with the agreement of the
fishermen where he could see, participate and understand the Fishing Arts and
didn’t pay for it. This was 37 years ago. Yesterday, I have heard on TV that the
Catalonian Fishermen Board is carrying out a pilot experience consisting of
letting people to spend a journey on their ships knowing how to fish, and that it
is done to complete the more and more reduced fishermen’s income. To
promote and control this kind of activities can be a source of growth and
development.
How can personal conditions influence the desire and possibility of doing
creative tourism? To know it some correlations are worked and shown in table 2
where it seems that only flexibility of time and personal motivation are behind
the practice of creative tourism.
Table 2
Personal features and desire and possibility of doing creative tourism
correlations
With a time flexible work
0.806
With a university degree
0.236
Being non-Spaniard
-0,007
Being over 35
0.377
Income
0.142
Source: own elaboration with interviews data
The cited reasons for doing and not doing creative tourism can be established
in tables 3 and 4. Many motivations are related to the desire of knowing other
ways of life, learning from them and interexchange with that people. This
indicates that creative tourism motivations are related to the highest part of
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs pyramid linked to socialization. It is also significant
the number of reasons which see creative tourism coming up as a way of
profiting for time and learning new things where working in a place which is not
your actual home. Thus, we can see again the close interaction between
creative tourism and other economic activities. It is also remarkable the
reference to personal growth and personal enrichment linked to Maslow’s selfactualization needs fulfillment.
Table 3
Frequency of given reasons for doing creative tourism
To know other ways of life
To learn for it
For intercultural knowledge
To analyse how they use their resources (economic context)
To analyse their values and intangible things
To understand and analyse a social context
To interexchange knowledge and values
To transmit the learnt culture and values into my family or society
To help people
To be more integrated while working out of my city
For personal growth and richness
To do a non-planned and stressful vacation
For a sense of uniqueness
To acquire new creative skills
For a change
Source: own elaboration with interviews data
13
12
7
6
4
4
4
2
1
5
4
4
4
2
1
It is remarkable to say that most of the reasons impeding the practice of
creative tourism are related to work conditions or work time flexibility and to
personal restrictive conditions, like for example having little children. These are
also related to Maslow’s pyramid. We can say that only when the physical and
security needs are covered we can devote time to more creative forms of
tourism.
Table 4
Frequency of given reasons for not doing creative tourism
My work is very stressing and I want to rest
I have an own business and it is very demanding
Due to economic crisis it's cheaper another way of holiday
It is not my use
I have little children
Source: own elaboration with interviews data
4
3
1
1
1
What is different is the spending pattern which varies according to motivations,
status and personal conditions. To compare I have taken as a reference the
ordinary expenditure in Spain in a conventional holiday which is 90 Euros per
day, according to official statistics, see IET). A classification of creative tourists
can be set up according to profitability of creative tourism and is shown in table
5. The first three categories make reference to people who pass or would be
ready to pass all their free time travelling or in holidays in other places different
from their homes and the rest categories contain people less prone to travel.
Table 5
Holidays expenditure pattern according to the type of holiday carried out by
creative tourists
Prone to travel and
profitable
Cat. 1
Cat. 2
9
20
15
23.3
10
15
Average budget in a conventional holiday (eur)
766.7
2500
1425
Average maximum budget in a creative holiday (eur)
1866.7
2500
2100
Average days in a conventional holiday
Average days in a creative holiday
Cat. 3
Less prone to travel
NonProfitable
profitable
Cat.
Cat. 4
5
Cat. 5
Average days in a conventional holiday
10
9
Least prone
to travel
Nonprofitable
Cat. 6
Cat.
7
4
12
23
Average days in a creative holiday
11
7
7
7
2
Average budget in a conventional holiday (eur)
668
1500
1200
140
1250
Average maximum budget in a creative holiday (eur)
990
2000
1340
350
275
Source: own elaboration with the interviews data
1. Category 1: really motivated for creative tourism with a constant
travel budget. They spend one third or their holidays in a conventional
vacation and would desire to spend the rest two thirds in creative
tourism. People in their 30’s with stable works or non-family economic
problems, two members of the couple work and pay by equal in their
holidays. Prone to do-it-yourself experiences. People who in their
conventional holidays spend on the average (around 90 euros) and the
same in creative tourism by choosing non-expensive creative tourism
holidays to enjoy more days. Travel with under age children or with
friends.
Profitability for creative tourism: though they are not big spenders they
devote many days to the activity and travel accompanied.
2. Category 2: retired or near retirement with great flexibility of time
and big spenders in creative tourism. They spend two thirds of their
holidays in a conventional vacation and would desire to spend the other
third in creative tourism. With a conventional spending over the average,
would be willing to pay twice the amount for having an authentic
experience. They Travel with the rest of the family in their 30’s all of them
with well-paid works. Profitability for creative tourism due to their big
expenditure.
3. Category 3: Non-migrant people without children with intercultural
links by marriage or friendship. They would devote half of their
holidays to intercultural creative tourism consisting of visiting couple’s
family or friends. They really value the intercultural exchange for what
they prefer to have a more reduced budget in their conventional holidays
and spend more during their intercultural visits.
4. Category 4: Non-married people with stable works. They would share
less than half of their holidays both in conventional or creative tourism.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Spending pattern under the average in conventional holidays and more
expensive in creative ones.
Category 5: married people travelling in couple or with the whole
family. Average expenditure in a conventional holiday and more
expensive in creative ones.
Category 6: Inmigrants. They devote most of their holidays to visit their
relatives. Since they live an intercultural day-to-day they would spend
less for a creative tourism activity. Their conventional holidays are visits
to the family
Category 7: Students with little income. They cannot afford a long or
expensive vacation
Category 8: Weekend creative people. Little impact for creative
tourism. Really devoted to arts or gastronomy
3.2 Supply of creative tourism
It is remarkable to see how the mass production system of tourism has lead to
the creation of big hotels and travel agencies which have standardized the final
product: our holidays. With the tourism standardization its market has turn out to
be a perfect competition one, with similar products/service everywhere, that is
to say, mass tourism has more to do with industrial markets than with services
markets (those last ones more easily suitable to imperfect competition markets).
And this is the real panorama when talking about tourism multinationals or big
tourism enterprises which is the most prominent from the supply side.
For this work I have analysed the web pages of some travel agencies and
tourism enterprises and have discovered that the biggest and important the
travel agent is, the little possibility appears to find something different than
travel and hostelling (price, hotel category and number of days). There are only
timid attempts to do something different related to experience tourism (for
example Barceló agents in Spain, www.barcelo.es, developed some years ago
a programme to hire travelers to tell their experiences in order to publish a
magazine and show attractive different locations around the world). They
developed the “smart boxes” which are defined as the perfect present for living
a different break. In these boxes you can find an experience: horse-riding, spa,
gastronomy. It is an attempt to improve and customize according to the type of
consumer but in this innovative service there is little margin for the consumer for
the interaction and the skills acquisition and the experience is carried out in a
short times, normally week-ends. So, we must say that creative tourism is not
present or has an insignificant role in big tourism enterprises.
Creative tourism conforms however a differentiated market where small and
medium enterprises (SMEs) can compete. The most specialized or creative is
the service, the biggest will be the opportunity for an SME. With creative
tourism, it can be said, that tourism goes back to be a real service, with a great
deal of intangibility.
But it is not only a matter of enterprise size, the real thing is in the inputs. How
traditional resources of tourism (heritage or nature) can be converted into
intangible resources or even when traditional resources are not present how a
tourism value can be created. I have recently known from a village in Palencia,
a lagging-behind region in Spain, where no one should desire to stop. They
have devoted all many building facades for artist to go there and freely expose
their works.
It can be said that creative tourism it is most competitive when it can be
described as a monopolistic competition market where all agents are implied in
offering differentiated services full of authenticity and symbolic values linked to
a particular place. A market where enterprises, authorities and customers
interact, where every travel is different resulting from this interaction and agents’
characteristics and where a knowledge transmission is present.
4. CREATIVE TOURISM IN MEDITERRANEAN COUNTRIES
The process of globalization and the European Union attempt for establishing a
Euro-Mediterranean free-trade area is forcing countries to be competitive.
Travel plays a positive role in most of these economies as it can be seen in
table 6 and compensates the whole balance of payments.
Table 6
Balance of payments and travel balance in some Mediterranean countries
(million EUR)
Balance of payment settlement
Travel balance settlement
-6304
955
Europe
Bulgaria
Cyprus
-1832
885
France
-22320
12785
Greece
-32387
8833
Italy
-37361
11199
Malta
-347
449
Romania
-16715
51
Slovenia
-1455
980
-105894
27811
Algeria
22302
-115
Egypt
292
805
Israel
3304
-147
Na
812
Lebanon
-1018
1708
Morocco
-51
4591
Palestine
Na
-168
Syria
334
1632
Tunisia
-679
1564
Spain
North Africa & Middle East
Jordan
Source: Eurostat (2009)
Why should creative tourism be promoted in Mediterranean countries?
Richards, G. and Wilson, J. (2008) say that “cultural tourism is a “good” tourism
because it attracts the right kinds of tourist who will appreciate the local culture
and inject much needed money into the local economy thus promoting
development”. This statement can be also applicable to creative tourism which
can be a “good” form of tourism within the Mediterranean area for several
reasons:







It is (most of the times) environment friendly. This is especially important
as a means to preserve the most deteriorated spaces in the
Mediterranean which have suffered an oversized coastal expansion in
other times and can also avoid this kind of expansion in those areas
which have less tourist tradition.
It preserves the physical and cultural heritage and contributes to increase
it. Both producers and consumers maintain and spread, many times by
word of mouth, the intangible heritage: values, symbols, skills in art or a
particular atmosphere that can be destroyed with the homogenization of
culture due to globalization. This should enhance the image and prestige
of the area with a new air and reinforce its identity as a whole.
Creative tourism, frequently (but not always) employ high-skill, creative
workers and is carried out by people with certain knowledge or at least
an interest to know. In less-advanced areas, like East Europe or North of
Africa and the Middle East, the interexchange between the travelers and
the local people can contribute to knowledge transmission that can
increase knowledge and culture of the inhabitants of those laggingbehind regions. This is an important externality.
Creative tourism can contribute to the quality of life in the Mediterranean
countries due to the services and inputs associated to them and to the
generation of spillovers.
It can contribute to avoid the loss of employment and provide with new
economic opportunities and jobs.
It can compete with cheaper destinations based on beach and sun.
There is a real demand for it in several scopes which could promote
development as shown in table 7 with information from the interviews.
Table 7
Frequency of preferences for creative tourism in Mediterranean
countries
Ecologic tourism in remote coastal or mountain villages
Integrating in a place by living with local people
Improve life conditions of local people
Gastronomy and enology
Fish hunting and selling
Sports tourism
Extrancting intangible things
Dance
Source: own elaboration with interviews data
9
6
2
4
3
2
2
1
Ecologic and rural tourism stands in a prominent place, followed by the
integration and everyday life with local people. Taking into account the
production structure in some Mediterranean countries which appears in table 8
we could say that Bulgaria, Romania or Greece together with most of the North
African and Middle-East countries could be good destinations for this kind of
tourism. The other countries would be more specialized in obtaining intangible
things from heritage or culture and to provide creative tourism by the interaction
of economic activities.
Table 8
GDP per capita at current market prices and contribution to gross value added
by economic activity sector in 2007 in some Mediterranean countries
( EUR and % respectively)
GDP per capita
% Agriculture
Bulgaria
3763
6.2
Cyprus
20120
France
29848
Greece
%
Manufacturing %Construction % Services
Europe
24.1
8.2
61.5
2.2
9.8
9.1
78.9
2.2
14.0
6.5
77.3
20425
3.8
13.3
7.0
75.9
Italy
26127
2.1
21.4
6.1
70.4
Malta
13398
2.6
18.4
3.6
75.4
Romania
5743
6.4
27.0
10.1
56.5
Slovenia
17146
2.4
26.4
8.0
63.2
Spain
23622
2.9
17.5
12.3
67.3
North Africa & Middle East
Algeria
2874
8.0
51.9
9.4
30.7
Egypt
1293
13.8
33.4
4.4
48.4
Israel
16679
1.8
17.7
5.0
75.6
Jordan
1873
2.5
20.8
4.0
72.7
Lebanon
n.a.
6.2
8.1
10.7
74.9
Morocco
1779
13.7
20.5
6.8
59.0
Palestine
1022
6.5
14.8
7.7
71.1
Syria
1538
20.3
31.9
3.6
44.3
Tunisia
2579
11.4
29.1
6.0
53.4
Source: Eurostat (2009)
However, this desire for creative tourism from the demand side seems not to be
very well fulfilled on the supply side, at least officially. Few countries’ tourism
board web pages contain creative tourism as shown in table 9
Table 9
Mediterranean countries with creative tourism in their Tourist Board
web pages
Group 1 OUTSTANDING PRESENCE OF CREATIVE TOURISM
Palestine Living with local people with the contact of the NGO'S who promote it
Creative Agro-Tourism and Agro-Tourism Fairs
Morocco Customised and very detailed itineraries with contact enterprises
Egypt
Customised creative culture and nature activities with contact enterprises.
Fidelisation programme. Customised travel planner. Multimedia experience.
Lebanon A detailed list with contact with enterprises providing creative tourism
Romania Rich in active holidays. Customised travel planner
Customised travel planner, experiences on the main page and multimedia
Cyprus
experience
Group 2 WITH SOME CREATIVE TOURISM ACTIVITIES
Motivational outings for enterprise workers, creative nature and gastronomic
Slovenia tourism
France
Creative wine and mine tourism. Customised by country of origin.
Spain
Creative wine, sports, adventure and nature tourism and fairs tourism.
Israel
Creative religious itineraries
Greece
Creative agro-tourism
Bulgaria Creative tourism in National Parks
Source: Own elaboration with OfficialTourism Board web pages of countries
having coastal lines with Mediterranean Sea according to the address provided
by World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO)
In this table 9 there are two groups of countries according to the presence of
creative tourism in their official tourism web pages. It is remarkable to say that
culture can be a burden that situates France or Spain in a second group, with
only some creative activities, lots of culture and a certain development of
experience tourism. In this sense, both countries seem to follow the pattern of
tourist evolution described in figure 1. Morocco and Egypt seem to have
overcome this and offer a customized culture with lots of creative activities. It is
also remarkable to see the case of Palestine, in my opinion, not the best
attractive page but the best one from the creative tourism presence that lacking
in tourism infrastructure and many resources, offers what it has: living with the
local people and creative agro-tourism.
A good scheme of creative tourism should follow:

A close interaction of all agents at a local, regional and Mediterranean
level. Since the market structure favours SMEs due to their capacity of
differentiation, public authorities should collaborate with them in
promoting creative tourism activities and manage not only the tangible
resources but also the intangible ones. It implies to say good-bye to oldfashioned marketing models in favour of more complex models with a
wider range of actors and cultural resources (Richards, G. and Wilson, J.
(2008).


A very relevant case study due to the singularity of being provided by a
public body is the Barcelona creative platform offered performed by the
Barcelona Tourist Board and FUSIC (Foundation for Society and
Culture). Its internet site is www.barcelonacreativa.info displayed in
several languages. Its objective is to develop creative tourism in
Barcelona city, which is define in this platform as “a new form of
discovering a culture in which the visitor takes part in creative and
educational activities during his stay, and by this way, has the
opportunity to exchange enriching experiences with native people. It is
thus a sustainable one, as its main resources are local culture, human
relationships and creativity”. It is addressed to creative people who can
rent an space in the city to develop Arts projects within the city in the
fields of Architecture, Design, Fashion, Street Arts, Decorative Arts,
Plastic Arts, Visual Arts, Circus and Theater related Arts, Dance,
Gastronomy, Literature, Music, Language schools, Science and
Technology services to support Arts and show. Being a platform it allows
meeting creative visitors for a better exchange. It also aims that noncreative people can live the “real” life of the city by offering creative
hostelling and popular culture. As it can be seen, this initiative is built up
on many activities interactions and generates several spillovers. It is very
interesting to see the how it contributes to the visitors’ fidelisation through
a register where the visitors state their interests and can be contacted for
future related events.
The creation of clusters to reach a critical mass on some aspect related
to creative tourism.
Authorities should establish some rewarding programmes for the
population in general to imply in creative tourism, for example giving
them some money for hosting a tourist and make him live a real creative
experience.
5. Concluding remarks
Creative tourism has been analyzed in this paper as a multi-approach concept.
It has differentiated features within service, it implies an interaction of producer
and consumer in its design and consumption, it implies a knowledge
transmission which allows both producers and consumers to develop new skills.
It is also the result of the evolution of the production system of tourism from a
mass production to a more customized one. It shows many interactions with
other economic activities which can generate important spillovers.
The empirical analysis shows that demand of creative tourism is linked mainly
to personal motivations linked to socialization, self-esteem and self-actualization
and it is negatively sensitive to pressure for time. Supply of creative tourism
shows a monopolistic competition scheme with a great deal of differentiation
and the prominent presence of small and medium enterprises.
Creative tourism can be a source of competitiveness for Mediterranean
countries and can contribute to the social cohesion and common identity of
those countries. Authorities should develop marketing strategies and
programmes to imply the highest number of agents.
6. References:
Bell, D. (1973): The Coming of Post-Industrial Society, A venture in Social
Forecasting, Basic Books, Inc, New York
Eurostat and European Commission (2009): Euro-Mediterranean Statistics
KK-Stiftelsen (2000): Blandade upplevelser, Stockhlom
KK-Stiftelsen (2003): Upplevelseindustrin 2003 Statistik och Jämforelser,
Stockholm
Maslow, A. H. (1943): A theory of human motivation; Psychological Review, 50,
370-396
Power, D. and Gustafsson, N (2005): “International Competitiveness and
Experience Industries”; Report 2005:15, ISA, NUTEK and VINNOVA,
Stockholm
Power, D. and Scott. A (2004): Working through knowledge pools: labour
market dynamics, the transfer of knowledge and ideas, and industrial clusters,
Urban studies 41 (5/6): 1025-1044
Richards, G.
and Wilson, J. (2006): “Developing creativity in tourist
experiences: a solution to the serial reproduction of culture?”; Tourism
Management, vol. 27, Issue 6, December 2006, pp. 1209-1223
Richards, G. and Wilson, J. (2008): From cultural tourism to creative tourism.
Part 2: changing structures of collaboration, Arnhem: Atlas
www.albaniantourism.com
www.bulgariatravel.org
www.barcelonacreativa.info
www.croatia.hr
www.visitcyprus.org.cy
www.egypt.travel
www.enit.it
www.franceguide.com
www.gnto.gr
www.lebanon-tourism.gv.lb
www.montenegro.travel
www.romaniatourism.com
www.serbiatourism.org
www.slovenia-tourism.si
www.syriatourism.org
www.tourism.gov.il
www.tourism.jo
www.tourismtunisia.com
www.tourismturkey.org
www.tourspain.es
www.unwto.org
www.visitmalta.com
www.visitmorocco.com
www.visit-palestine.com
Author contact address:
Name and title: M. Teresa Fernández Fernández, Prof. of Applied Economics
Institution: Universidad Rey Juan Carlos
Department: Economía Aplicada I
Full address: Paseo de Artilleros, s/n 28035, Madrid, Spain
E-mail: [email protected]
I agree this paper to be published in the proposed by the Congress journals and
books or as a working paper