I Congresso Internacional da Rota do RomânicoSeptember 2011

Cultural Tourism

Greg Richards

Structure

• Cultural tourism characteristics

• Changes in supply and demand

• The rise of creativity

• Implications for cultural routes

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1995 2007

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Cultural tourism: a major growth industry?

International cultural tourists 1995 – 2007 (OECD)

A high spend market?

•Cultural Tourism Benefits

• Creating jobs and businesses.• Increasing tax revenues.• Diversifying the local economy.• Creating opportunities for partnerships.• Attracting visitors interested in history and preservation.• Increasing historic attraction revenues.• Preserving local traditions and culture.• Generating local investment in historic resources.• Building community pride in heritage.• Increasing awareness of the site or area's significance.

Challenges:Copying as cultural strategy?

Challenges: Fragmentation into niche markets

Heritage

Music

Creativity

Gastronomy

Arts

Cultural tourism

The trajectory of tourism – from mass tourism to cultural tourism to creative tourism?

Places increasingly seek distinction

Distinction is increasingly linked to intangible factors

The need to develop new types of cultural tourism coincides with the consumer need for self-realisation

From serial reproduction to co-creation

Shift from tangible to intangible tourism resources

Built heritageMuseums

MonumentsBeaches

Mountains

ImageIdentity

LifestylesAtmosphereNarrativesCreativity

Media

Major cultural icons are important in tourism

Production

Consumption

High culture

Popular culture

Everyday culture

Passive Active

Heritage tourism

Cultural tourism Creative tourism

Arts tourism

Crafts tourism

Extract commodities

Make goods

Deliver services

Stage experiences

Create transformations

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Market PremiumPricing

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The trajectory of production - from goods to experiences

Trajectory of consumption

From unskilled......

To skilled consumption

Richards and Raymond (2000) Definition of Creative Tourism:

“tourism which offers visitors the opportunity to developtheir creative potential through active participationin learning experiences which are characteristicof the holiday destination where they are undertaken”.

Arts and craftsDesignCookery, gastronomy and wine-makingHealth and healingLanguageSpiritualityNature and landscapeSports and pastimes

Models of creative tourism

Increasing involvement

Creativity as background

Creativity as activity

BuyingShop window

LearningWorkshops, courses

TastingExperiencesOpen ateliers

SeeingItineraries

experiences and products

NetworksCreative

entrepreneursPartnerships

Forms of delivery

Events

Networks – Finnish Craft Network

A professional will teach you how to make your knife.

La Coutellerie de Laguiole proposes cutlery sessions. They allow each individual to make his own knife from beginning to end with the help of a professional cutler who will help one along the whole session. You will get yourself involved in the making of a mythical product. You will know an outstanding experience and feel everyday the pleasure to use the knife you have made.

Jean-Michel CAYRON, laureate of the Prix Artisans et Métiers d'Art de l'an 2000, will be the cutler-teacher during the session.

Price of the session : 540,75€ including all taxes for an 8 hours sessionThis price corresponds to the session and you can up to 4 persons

Rural tourism and creative enterprises

Taste the culture

Catalan cuisine...is in a category of its own within the realms of other Mediterranean foods. Dishes such as escalivada, esqueixada, or Bacalla a la llauna, simple things such as pa amb tomaquet, and famous desserts like crema catalana...

Apart from its fabulous Priorat wines, this area also produces a delicious olive oil made from arbequina olives. This oil is produced right here in El Masroig, and its acidity is no more than 0.3 degrees, a true sign of quality.

Several times a year we offer a longer stay during which you are able to join in picking grapes, or picking olives, and participate in the production of wine or olive oil.

Tasting: spiritual creativity

Tasting networks

Events

Developing creativity in cultural routes

The route itself needs to be creative

Think about how these features can be linked into local, national and global networks

Develop co-creation systems

Develop links between tourism, culture and creativity

Use creative tourism as a tool for re-thinking places

Creativespace

Links

Clusters

New forms of cultural tourism should allow the cultural routes to

articulate more strongly with COE themes, such as

Human rights

Democracy

Social cohesion

Intercultural dialogue

In order to achieve this, however, cultural routes need to make more

active use of the cultural resources at their disposal in order to

develop narratives relevant to target users and the mission of the

COE

Narrative provides the essential link between people, places and

creativity, and in many contexts is just as important as the tangible

heritage conserved by the routes.

This is illustrated by the narrative of the city of Den Bosch

The city without pictures

Den Bosch in the Netherlands is the birthplace of Hieronymus Bosch, but it

has none of his paintings.

The city has created a narrative linking it to Bosch, and laying claim to the

intellectual heritage of his works and the creative spirit behind them

The network of ‘Bosch Cities’ which house his artworks have now embarked

on a major restoration project which will lead to the paintings being reunited in

Den Bosch in 2016, the 500th anniversary of his death.

The interweaving of tangible and intangible heritage and narrative has enable

the city to turn a lack of paintings into a global network and a major forum for

cultural exchange

From cultural routes old style

….to new style?

Conclusions

•Çultural tourism’ is changing rapidly

•From sightseeing to creative being

•Cultural routes can provide the narrative and link crative spaces

•But developing new linkages needs new ways of thinking and new tools