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given that a large part of so-called creative activity in tourism production is actually replicated
and imported from another place and context: 'the creative strategies of one's neighbours must
also be extremely attractive to those “wannabee cities” [Short, 2004] striving to increase their
position in regional and global league tables' (Richards and Wilson, 2007a).
The production of creativity specifi cally in tourism has not been explored in any great
depth by tourism economists, and the same kind of mapping and defi nition exercises that
have been undertaken in mainstream creative geographies could certainly be reproduced in
the tourism context, allowing a more detailed understanding of tourism's relationship to
creative development discourses and processes. The use of spatial analysis techniques (see
Hall,
Chapter 21
in this volume) would signifi cantly enhance existing research approaches to
this topic. As Richards and Wilson (2007a: 265) note, creativity 'can be viewed as a conven-
ient way for policymakers to deal with a raft of problems caused by the growing fragmenta-
tion of society. As culture fragments into diverse “cultures”, creativity seems to be a useful
shorthand for dealing with the plethora of demands placed on the hardware and software of
the city or region.' This is another reason to tread cautiously with the 'creative turn' in theory
and practice, and care should be taken with such broad-brush approaches.
In evaluating the social and cultural dimensions of tourism and creativity, research could
usefully be framed within the New Mobilities Paradigm, for example (see Gale,
Chapter 4;
Duncan
, Chapter 14)
. Furthermore, as argued by Wilson and Tallon in the case of gentrifi cation
and tourism
(Chapter 13),
there is much potential in Cultural Political Economy (CPE)
(Ribera-Fumaz, 2009) as a research framework for aligning the production and consumption
dimensions of creativity and tourism in a more holistic manner. The same could also be said for
the use of actor network theory (ANT) more generally in researching tourism and creativity, as
argued by many other contributors in this volume for different domains. It may also be perti-
nent to start to separate out the overlapping domains of 'creativity' and 'cosmopolitanism'
(Binnie
et al.
, 2006) in framing debates on new forms of tourism production and consumption -
these are terms that tend to get used interchangeably in analyses of urban tourism.
Future research would ideally focus more generally on the potential of creative develop-
ment in tourism, evaluating possible negative effects and addressing them, while accumu-
lating good practice cases to illustrate creativity as a local and regional tourism development
tool. Along these lines, it is important to adopt a cautionary approach to linking creative class
debates with tourism and instead extend the debate on how to root creativity in participatory
and community development paradigms. It is also important to be aware of the refl exive turn
in tourism consumption (pro-sumption, co-creation and other conceptual shifts such as indi-
viduation - see Meethan,
Chapter 7)
and the need to harness and situate creativity within
local contexts, paying attention to its particular rhythms, scapes and fl ows.
The issue of intellectual property is central to debates on creativity and tourism
development, and future research could consider what mechanisms can be developed to
tie intellectual property to specifi c locations and how projects, processes and ideas can
be protected. By extension, the challenge of how a process as supposedly fl eeting and
spontaneous as human creativity can be managed as a tourism business prospects is also an
important consideration.
In sum, this chapter calls for a sympathetic application of the creativity idea to tourism
spaces and places; moving beyond the rhetoric and with the aim of providing development
solutions and enhancement potential (for all tourism activities across the board) in a sensitive,
accessible and locally specifi c manner. Moreover, as inter- and post-disciplinarity increases in
the study of tourism, surely the creativity idea can only improve in scope and potential, as
more dimensions and possibilities for tourism development are explored therein.
