reinventing costa del sol through creative tourism by economia creativa consultancy november 2014

>>>Reinventing

Costa del Sol through

Creative Tourism

Creative insights >>>

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Reinventing Costa del Sol through Creative Tourism

ECONOMÍA CREATIVA CONSULTANCY >>> Creative Insights

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ECONOMÍA CREATIVA CONSULTANCY creates development

strategies, policies and brands that shape the future of places and

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Principal Researcher Antonio Carlos Ruiz Soria

[email protected]

Research Assistant Justyna Molendowska-Ruiz

[email protected]

Creating New Ways, picture by Antonio Carlos Ruiz Soria Picture by Justyna Molendowska-Ruiz


mailto:[email protected]




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Acknowledgement Special thanks to Andalucía Lab and all the local

entrepreneurs that actively participated in the focus group

Creative Tourism Trends and Opportunities in Marbella

(Malaga) April 30th 2014

Please cite this publication as:

Economía Creativa Consultancy (2014), Reinventing Costa del Sol through Creative Tourism,

Economía Creativa Consultancy Creative Insights, Economía Creativa Consultancy Publishing

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Foreword

“A wise man travels to discover himself”

James Russell Lowell

“Discovery consists not in seeking new lands but in seeing

with new eyes”

Marcel Proust

reative tourists travel to explore, to learn, to create,

to rediscover themselves. Costa del Sol1 receives

every season thousands of tourists. Many of them

they are not discovering fully the destination in which

they spend their time. This has led to a severe problem of

saturation and seasonality.

It is the moment to reinvent Costa del Sol through Creative

Tourism. It is the moment to look to its identity, natural

resources, gastronomy, history and traditions with new

eyes to enchant the visitors, engage with them and

exchange lifetime experiences. 1 See Annex 1 for geographic and demographic information about Costa del Sol

C



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Table of Contents

Page

1. Creative Tourism. Definition 6

2. Creative Tourism Business Model 6

3. Applying Creative Tourism Business Model to Costa del Sol 14

4. Conclusion 16

5. References 17

6. Country Abbreviations 18

7. Annex 1. About Costa del Sol 19



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1. Creative Tourism. Definition

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” (UNESCO, 2006).

The tourists become travelers who seek adventure and a transformation through active

participation in courses and learning experiences which are characteristic of the travel

destination. They want to take part in crafts, arts, festivals, gastronomy and other activities

developing a close relationship with the local community and its cultural heritage. Creative

tourism is, therefore, sustainable and contributes to social inclusion, economic growth, job

creation, SME development, environmental and cultural heritage preservation.

Creative tourism is often understood as a form of cultural tourism. However they are essentially

different. Cultural tourism deals mainly with ‘viewing’, ‘contemplating’ or ‘seeing’ (eg. historic

building city tours, museum visits, dance performances, etc.) and it is generally linked to

physical places; whereas creative tourism is based in ‘experiencing’, ‘learning’ and

‘participating’ involving the satisfaction of a higher need of self-actualization and skill

development and involves resources that are processes (immaterial) like dances, recipes,

festivals, traditions, legends, routes, etc.

Creative tourism is a form of creative community’s development stimulating the attraction of

talented professionals belonging to the creative class as defined by Richard Florida harnessing

creative entrepreneurship and innovation contributing to a virtuous circle that goes beyond the

profits from tourism.

2. Creative Tourism Business Model

As you can see on the Figure 1, there are several factors to be considered for the creative

business model.

a. Demand Factors

The experience economy that is growing for last two decades and the transformation economy

that has taken strength especially after the 2008 crisis are generating the development of the

creative industries and in the tourists the interest for learning new skills and the participation in



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Participation in Culture

Demand Factors

Creativity

Innovation

Cultural Heritage Preservation

Authenticity

Human Interaction

Cultural Travel and Tourism

Creative

Tourism

Creative Industries

Global Cultural

Diversity

Unique Local Cultural

Offerings

Unique Local Arts and

Crafts

Hospitability

Local Tourism

Infrastructure

Cultural Tourism

Resources

Other Types of

Tourism

Supply Factors

Product &

Services

Creative

Tourism Benefits

Creative

Tourism

Results

Exports

Brand Visibility

Jobs Creation

Sustainability

Cultural Heritage

Preservation

Innovation

Target Market

Expansion

Cultural Capital

Local Identity

&Uniqueness

Social Capital

Cultural Values

Preservation

Cultural Heritage

Preservation

Cultural Exchange

Local Culture

Diversification

Moral & Spiritual

Values

Pride of Place &

Belonging

Increased Success

for Local

Businesses

Increased

Prosperity for Local

Community

Intangible Benefits

Demand Factors

Figure 1. Creative tourism business model (Ohridska-Olson 2010)



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cultural experiences. Overconsumption is socially punished. There is a dematerialization of the

social aesthetics. There is a desire for sharing, for co-creating and for community. The

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), especially social media, are a factor for

the development of creativity and transformative experiences. They allow users to share what

they are doing, learning, creating with friends, networks or a global audience.

In consequence, it is a corollary that there is an important demand for creative tourism on the

countries that are the biggest markets for outbound tourism and where internet penetration and

usage is largely consolidated (USA, UK, Germany, among others). According to Cultural

Statistics by Eurostat (2011) 57% of Europeans who used Internet in the previous three months

declared having used one of the following advanced communication services: instant messaging,

posting messages, contribution to the social web, reading or creating blogs.

Participation in culture is particularly relevant in societies with higher educational levels (see

Table 1) like in the European Union. Especially relevant to Costa del Sol touristic demand are

the data from United Kingdom with 29.9% high education attainment among baby boomers and

39.2% among millennials, Norway with 31.2% and 43.6%, Sweden with 28.5% and 41.0% or

Switzerland 32.3% and 40.2% respectively. Higher education means stronger orientation

towards activities that requires deeper intellectual engagement and higher consumption of

cultural goods, more participation in creative activities and a desire for innovative learning

experiences.

Cultural heritage is revisited by creative tourists. They are not anymore satisfied with just

staged reality. They are searching stories to tell, to show and to share. They are really

demanding the authenticity of the place / monument / tradition and are not willing to be happy

with mere artificial substitutes.

Population in most advanced countries is concentrated in urban areas. The impersonal way of

living in cities implies (among other factors) a desire for human interaction and cultural

immersion. Creative tourists want to feel part of local communities, understand the culture of

the place they are visiting, eat local food, learn how to cook traditional recipes, learn the

language, and paint the landscape. They have a desire of discovering themselves by exploring

new cultures like the pioneers that travelled to what is nowadays Costa del Sol in the XIX

century were in search of the exotic.



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Table 1. Educational attainment of population by age group, 2009 (%) (')

25-39 years old 40-64 years old

Low Medium High Low Medium High

EU-27 21,0 48,0 31,0 32,3 46,1 21,5

BE 18,1 40,5 41,4 36,0 35,3 28,8

BG 19,8 54,3 25,9 23,4 55,3 21,4

CZ 5,5 76,2 18,3 10,8 75,6 13,6

DK 15,5 40,4 44,0 28,2 42,8 29,0

DE 13,9 59,5 26,5 14,8 58,9 26,3

EE 11,6 51,4 37,0 10,7 54,0 35,3

IE 16,0 37,9 46,1 38,9 33,8 27,2

EL 26,4 46,1 27,4 46,7 33,5 19,8

ES 37,7 24,9 37,4 56,7 19,4 23,8

FR 17,6 41,4 41,0 36,7 41,8 21,4

IT 33,0 47,9 19,1 53,5 34,8 11,7

CY 17,0 37,7 45,4 35,4 38,8 25,8

LV 16,3 54,1 29,6 11,2 65,0 23,8

LT 10,4 49,1 40,5 7,6 67,6 24,8

LU 17,5 39,2 43,3 26,1 44,8 29,2

HU 14,9 61,9 23,2 22,6 59,9 17,5

MT 57,7 22,3 20,0 81,2 9,8 9,0

NL 19,0 42,8 38,2 30,7 39,4 29,9

AT 12,6 66,3 21,1 21,4 60,8 17,8

PL 7,0 61,1 31,9 15,4 70,7 13,8

PT 55,8 22,8 21,4 79,9 10,0 10,0

RO 20,8 61,8 17,4 28,7 61,1 10,2

SI 8,8 61,1 30,1 21,7 59,2 19,1

SK 5,1 75,9 19,0 12,0 74,6 13,4

FI 10,0 48,6 41,4 22,2 42,7 35,1

SE 12,4 46,7 41,0 23,3 48,2 28,5

UK 19,4 41,4 39,2 29,1 41,0 29,9

IS 29,5 32,9 37,6 37,2 33,3 29,5

NO 16,2 40,2 43,6 21,5 47,3 31,2

CH 10,3 49,6 40,2 14,7 52,9 32,3

HR 12,9 66,9 20,2 27,3 56,0 16,7

MK 33,7 49,6 16,7 42,5 44,2 13,4

TR 64,0 21,5 14,5 79,5 11,8 8,6

(') Levels of education based on ISCED 1997:

Low (ISCED levels 0-2, 3c short): pre-premary, primary and lower-secondary education; Medium (ISCED levels 3-4, without 3c short): upper-secondary and post-secondary non-tertiary education;

High (ISCED levels 5-6): tertiary education. Source: Eurostat, EULFS



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“Box 1. About the Creative Industries The transformation of the ‘cultural industries’ into the ‘creative industries’ arguably stems from the ‘media boom’ of the 1990s, where emerging sectors of cultural production, such as multimedia and software production, the audio-visual industries, architecture and design became increasingly hard to encompass within traditionally defined sectors of the cultural industries (Ratzenböck et al. 2004)”.

Richards, G. and J. Wilson (2007),

The rapid industrialization during the later XIX century up to the 1990s and the drastic

migration from rural to urban areas have had as consequence that many jobs, skills, traditions

and arts have been forgotten. Cultured baby boomers have now time –as many of them are

arriving to the retirement age- and disposable income to search for their cultural roots; among

millennials, who have suddenly found themselves in a severe crisis after living in almost

opulence, there is also a demand for DIY (do it yourself), for crafts and authentic experiences

that reassure and give them a sense of belonging and purpose.

The Cultural Routes Programme of the Council of Europe and the European Association of

Historic Towns and Regions and social travelling networks (such as Airbnb) are encouraging

this interaction among local communities and creative tourists.

Despite we have said above that creative tourism is essentially different from cultural tourism,

the later contributes to creative tourism in various ways: promoting the cultural assets of the

destination and by attracting visitors interested in culture who once in the destination can

evolve from an observing/passive attitude towards a participating/active one becoming creative

tourists.

b. Supply factors

The creative industries (see Box 1) are a factor for

tourism development. Contemporary lifestyle and the

development of ICT have made less relevant the

distinction between travelling for work or for pleasure.

For the creative class the presence of solid and

dynamic creative industries might be enough reason

for travelling to a destination to find inspiration.

Global cultural diversity plays an essential role for

cultural tourism and opens many opportunities for

creative tourism by developing the uniqueness of each local culture –since there is not one

community that lacks of particular traditions, arts, crafts, rituals and other forms of tangible or

intangible cultural heritage.

https://www.airbnb.es/?af=1922719&c=A_TC%3Dycp94pj2nk%26G_MT%3De%26G_CR%3D21833010666%26G_N%3Dg%26G_K%3Dairbnb%26G_P%3D&gclid=CjwKEAiAqMajBRCdjejki6yjuDwSJACQeVukOqBubodsM40yc7-tTrZ_J_wcfLyuv0ndFlopQIfO7xoC1ADw_wcB



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Local arts & crafts, gastronomy, religion related traditions, history and natural resources play

an important role for creative tourism supply. As well as destination hospitability, tourism

infrastructure and other forms of tourism (for example sun and beach or golf tourists in Costa

del Sol who are already in the destination could take part in creative activities).

c. Formulation of Creative Products and Services

There are many countries, regions and cities that are developing creative branding strategies

and creative products and services. Creative tourism can contribute to change the image of a

destination like, for example, ‘the ‘Cool Britannia’ campaign developed in the 1990’s to promote

the United Kingdom as an innovative and exciting place to be, based on creative elements such

as music, film and lifestyle’ (OECD 2014).

For the creation of creative tourism products and services it is needed an essential

transformation from traditional cultural tourism and other type of tourism models. It has to be

taken into account that the creative tourists want to co-create the experience (with this aim has

been created Welcome Lab in Paris); the traditional value chain in which touristic authorities

outlined a strategy and then tour operators created products and services to be distributed

through travel agencies has been replaced by the network value chain (please see Figure 2) in

which there is an iterative interaction among the different agents and stakeholders with

predominance by the commercial sector (rather than public sector) and the tourists themselves

in the final product and services created. The value creation follows therefore a bottom up

approach. Cultural tourism is mainly based in resources of the past whereas the creative tourism

focuses in the future potential, having as a consequence a shift in externalities from

conservation to innovation. The broadcast interpretation model (the typical documentary style)

is replaced by the co-creation of contents that can be shared through social media. In sum,

creative tourism represents a great opportunity for policymakers however it brings up the

challenge of working together with different stakeholders, including consumers.

http://www.welcomecitylab.com/



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Figure 2. From cultural tourism to creative tourism

Cultural Tourism Creative Tourism

Orientation

Externalities

Structure

Process

Value Creation

Value Focus

Funding

Source: Tourism and the creative economy, OECD 2014

d. Creative Tourism benefits

Creative tourism is emerging as a solid sector in the early XXI century and is largely

implemented as an economic development strategy for its numerous benefits both tangible and

intangible.

On the tangible side the most relevant benefit is its contribution to job creation and economic

growth and sustainability. Creative tourism contributes to entrepreneurship and SME

development (which means self-employment and employment growth) and to reduce

seasonality in the tourism sector. Creative tourists become ‘temporal local residents’ and are

more likely to care about the environment. In opposition to the mass tourism models (sea and

beach, traditional cultural tourism, for example) the tour operator/resort designed holiday

packages are less frequent among the creative tourists demand. There is a closer relationship

with the local community and with local businesses which contributes to a civil engagement and

jobs sustainability (whereas the mass tourism models normally imply poor quality temporal

jobs with high unemployment rates in off season periods).

Brand visibility is other important benefit form creative tourism. As we have mentioned earlier,

numerous cities, regions and countries have already developed creative branding strategies for

Past

Conservation

Products

Interpretation

Value chains

Upstream

Public

Future

Innovation

Platform and Content

Co-creation

Value networks

Downstream

Commercial



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attracting the creative class to be part of their communities. In the knowledge based economy

creative places are perceived as innovative attracting talent and global attention and visibility.

Creativity as a strategy for tourism and economic development is not exclusive of big cities.

Santa Fe in the USA with around 100.000 inhabitants has the highest creativity index of the

USA, (OECD 2014)

Creative tourism has also positive intangible benefits such as improving local identity, the pride

of place and belonging to a community; it helps flourishing the cultural exchange among the

local community and visitors preserving cultural values instead of the ‘pleasing the visitor’

attitude typical of mass tourism models (with the consequent loss of cultural uniqueness); and

increase social cooperation to create and operate creative products and services.

In sum, creative tourism results in an increased success for local businesses and prosperity for

local communities and generates a virtuous circle of job creation, social cohesion and economic

development.



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3. Applying the Creative Tourism Business Model to Costa del Sol

We have seen what the creative tourism business model is and what benefits brings for

economic and societal development. Now we are going to explore how to apply it to Costa del

Sol. As we have explained above, creative tourism requires the co-creation of knowledge with a

bottom up approach to build value networks.

Creative Tourism Focus Group leaded by Economía Creativa Consultancy at Andalucia Lab, Marbella. Picture by Justyna Molendowska-Ruiz

So we considered that the best approach to start the discussion about how to apply the creative

tourism business model to Costa del Sol was through the qualitative research methodology of

the focus group. We designed a focus group and organized it in collaboration with Andalucía

Lab (the Innovation Tourism Centre of the Andalusian Regional Government) in April 2014

with local entrepreneurs to research the concept of creative tourism, global trends and

opportunities, to analyze their own entrepreneurial initiatives and propose strategies for the

creative tourism development in Costa del Sol.

We began with the question ‘Is it necessary to think about creative tourism strategies for Costa

del Sol since the Easter touristic figures are positive?’ The answer was affirmative because

Easter figures simply confirmed the seasonality of the Costa del Sol touristic model and its

http://www.andalucialab.org/

http://www.andalucialab.org/



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negative externalities such as congestion, noise, pollution and the effects on the poor service

delivered by temporary staff that has not been properly trained or motivated. The ‘necessity of

innovation’ and ‘taking risks’ thinking more about the client and the experience were pointed

out. Also the fact that the ‘Costa del Sol touristic infrastructure is obsolete’ and that ‘businesses

are thinking about products rather than customers’.

After we leaded the debate towards the strategies needed to develop the creative tourism in

Costa del Sol. The need to identify Costa del Sol strengths with a global vision that would allow

visitors to ‘live the place’ ‘enjoying a memorable experience that not everybody can do’ was

underlined. It was also agreed that it is needed a change of attitude from all stakeholders in the

tourism scene of Costa del Sol. ‘There is a fear to competition when the fear should be to

‘incompetence’ and to the ‘the company does not pay me for that’ attitude. ‘We have to open the

eyes’ and see ‘that people demand a more emphatic service and value every small detail’, it was

remarked. The need for more insight about Costa del Sol visitors’ demographics was identify as

a key element for developing successful strategies to reduce seasonality.

Among the local resources that can contribute to creative tourism development in Costa del Sol,

gastronomy received the strongest attention since one the biggest market for Costa del Sol is the

United Kingdom where the foodie culture is consolidated with a long term trend for Spanish

food (from celebrity chefs’ TV shows cooking Spanish food to cooking classes or ham carving

lessons) and the Mediterranean diet that has been recognized as UNESCO’s asset of Intangible

Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2013. In this line it is important to mention the relevance of

Sabor a Malaga network/project to promote local producers, products and restaurants and also

cultural and culinary guided private tours organized by, for example, one of the participants of

the focus group (Voila Malaga).

Other resources that appeared in the discussion were courses for learning Spanish, revisiting

cultural heritage by, for example, creating events (always considering preservation) such as

weddings in the Basilica Paleocristiana de Guadalmina (San Pedro Alcántara, Marbella);

personal development and relaxation as part of a transformative holidays; thematic touristic

routes exploring the natural resources and cultural heritage and cultural immersion (like for

example the activities developed at Hotel Balcon de Competa –including an interesting project

to promote Andalusian literature)

http://www.saboramalaga.es/

http://www.voilamalaga.com/experiences.html#culinary

http://www.hotel-competa.com/



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Conclusion

osta del Sol has to address the problem of

seasonality that is creating a vicious circle of poor

quality jobs, unemployment, congestion and

saturation of the destination.

Despite the fact that Costal del Sol tourism industry is

aware of the problem, there is a lack of clear, solid and

innovative strategies for building a solution.

It has already been identified the need for change and

implemented some initiatives from the public sector (for

example, Strategies for managing seasonality 2014-2020,

Junta de Andalucía 2014), however it is needed the

development of a value network to design a creative

tourism strategy to reinvent Costa del Sol. It is the

moment for co-creating transformative experiences using

all of the resources tangible and intangible (gastronomy,

traditions, cultural heritage, arts & crafts, etc.) with which

Costa del Sol counts and that are not included in the

traditional sun and beach touristic offer.

All stakeholders (hospitality, SME, Public Sector,

consumers) involved in the creation of the touristic

product and services in Costa del Sol would benefit from

more training about creativity development and its

applications for innovation.

C



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References

European Commission (2011), “Creative Europe – A new framework”

programme for the cultural and creative sectors (2014-2020)”, European Commission, Brussels.

Eurostat (2011). Cultural Statistics, Eurostat Pocketbooks

Exceltur (2005), Impactos sobre el entorno, la economía y el empleo de los distintos modelos de

desarrollo turístico del litoral mediterráneo español, Baleares y Canarias, Exceltur 2005

Junta de Andalucia (2014), Estrategias para la gestion de la estacionalidad turistica 2014-2020

MADECA (2014), Observatorio Socioeconómico de la Provincia de Málaga, Fundacion Malaga

Desarrollo y Calidad

Mermiri, T. (2009), Beyond Experience: culture, consumer & brand, The Transformation

Economy, Arts & Business 2009

OECD (2012), OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2012, OECD Publishing

Ohridska-Olson, R. (2010) The Creative Tourism Business Model. Cultural Realms

Ohridska-Olson, R. and Ivanov S. (2010), Creative Tourism Business Model And Its Application

In Bulgaria, Black Sea Tourism Forum 'Cultural Tourism – The Future of Bulgaria,' 2010

Resonance (2013), The Resonance Report 2013 U.S. Affluent Travel and Leisure

Richards, G. and J. Wilson (2007), Tourism, Creativity and Development, Routledge, London

Rita Cruz, A., Tourism as a magnet for creativity: insights for creative class attraction in a tourism

based region, Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), DINÂMIA’CET-IUL, Lisboa

UNCTAD (2010), Creative Economy Report, UNDP-UNCTAD,

UNESCO (2006) Towards Sustainable Strategies for Creative Tourism. Discussion Report of the

Planning Meeting for 2008 International Conference on Creative Tourism, Santa Fe, New

Mexico, U.S.A., October 25-27, 2006.

UNESCO (2013), Creative Economy Report: Widening Local Development Pathways, UNDP-

UNESCO, New York and Paris,



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Country abbreviations

EU-27 Member States

BE Belgium

BG Bulgaria

CZ Czech Republic

DK Denmark

DE Germany

EE Estonia

IE Ireland

EL Greece

ES Spain

FR France

IT Italy

CY Cyprus

LV Latvia

LT Lithuania

LU Luxembourg

HU Hungary

MT Malta

NL Netherlands

AT Austria

PL Poland

PT Portugal

RO Romania

SI Slovenia

SK Slovakia

FI Finland

SE Sweden

UK United Kingdom

EFTA countries

IS Iceland

LI Liechtenstein

NO Norway

CH Switzerland

Candidate countries

MK(1) Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia

HR Croatia

TR Turkey



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Annex 1. About Costa del Sol

In this report we refer to Costa del Sol considering particularly Western Costa del Sol a sub-

region of the province of Malaga in Andalucia (Southern Spain).

Surface (Km²) 804

Population density 2013 (Hab / Km²) 670

Municipalities 2013 70

Population 2013 538.126

Foreign Population 175.679

Source: Spanish National Statistics Institute and Andalusian Statistic Institute (MADECA

2014)

Costa del Sol (Western) location in Spain and in Malaga province

http://www.duquesafairways.co.uk/images/map3.jpg



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