El Desarrollo De La Creatividad En Experiencias Turísticas: Una Solución A La Reproducción En Serie De La Cultura

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SCIENCE @DIRECT•

Tourism Management I (DIU) 111-111

TOURISM
MANAGEMENT

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Developing creativity in tourist experiences: A solution to the serial reproduction of culture?

Greg Richardsa·*, Julie vVilsonb

"Tourism Research and Alarkeling. c/ Gran de Gracia 183 ( 4-1).08012 Barcelona. Catalunya. Spain
bDepartment of Geography. Aulonomous University of Barcelona/ Universily oj !he Wesl of England. Brislol Edifici B.
Campus Universilari. Cerdanyola del Valles. 08193 Barcelona, Spain

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Abstract

As culture is increasingly utilised as a means of social and economic development, the cultural tourism market is being flooded withnew attractio.ns, cultural routes and heritage centres. However, many consumers, tired of encountering the serial reproduction of culture in different destinations are searching for alternatives. The rise of skilled consumption, the importance of identity formation and the acquisition of cultural capital in (post)modern society point towards the use of creativity as analternative to conventional cultural tourism. This paper considers the development of creative spaces, creative spectacles and creative tourism from the perspective of supply and demand. The need for creativity in developing new products and how to address the challenge of serial reproduction are discussed, and examples of creative tourism projects are examined and contrasted totraditional models of cultural tourism.
r[) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Creative tourism: Cultural tourism: Serial reproduction: Tourism development: Tourist experience

1. Introduction

According to many commentators (e.g. Ritzer, !999; Urry. 2001) culture has now become an essential element of the tourism system or 'culture of tourism'. Cultural tourismis also frequently quoted as being one of the largest and fastest growing segments of global tourism (e.g. WTO, 2004). Tourism and culture both play an important role in image creation processes, providing a major rationale for the aesthicisation of landscapes (Morgan & Pritchard, 1998), as well as in shaping the environment to meet the needs of consumers. Indeed, thegrowth of cultural consumption (of art. food, fashion. music, tourism) and the industries that cater to it has fuelled the 'symbolic economy' of cities and

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regions (Ray, 1998; Zukin, 1995). The image of a city or region becomes based both on physical assets, and a series of experiences built around those assets, generally extending to the 'living culture' and the atmosphere of places (Wilson, 2002).
Culturehas become a basic resource from which the themes and narratives essential to 'placemaking' can be derived (Gottdiener, 1997), often seen as tying the physical assets and the living culture together. It has also been argued that culture is the source of urban attraction (Fainstcin, Hoffman, & Judd. 2003). Many declining cities. for example. have had to createnew narratives of regeneration based on urban culture and heritage, as well as making a transition towards an economy of signs and symbols (Lash & Urry. I 994) and the repn:sen lations of space positioned by Soja (I 996. J1. 7')) as 'secondspace·. Many rural areas have re-defined thcm;cl\'es as consumrtion spaces in which history and rur;tl tradition t;tke...