ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the growth of creative tourism, which has been developing partly in response to the increasing emphasis placed on creative industries throughout the world. There is no doubt that creativity became one of the main buzzwords for the early 2000s; however, there is still some confusion about how to differentiate between culture and creativity. This has remained one of the major problems for the development of the so-called cultural and creative industries, which feature prominently in many economic and tourism development strategies, as well as being catalysts for regeneration. Whereas cultural tourism was traditionally seen as a rather passive form of consumption, whereby tourists enjoyed heritage sites or artistic spectacles, creative tourism is about more interactive forms of activity which are closely linked either to a location and its people, or to some of the more technologically advanced industries. Therefore, we see a twofold development of creative tourism in different parts of the world, which is based either on the traditional practices of indigenous communities, or which is connected to more contemporary experiential industries. This chapter provides an overview of the development of the cultural and creative industries, followed by a discussion of the use of the creative industries in regeneration and tourism strategies.
