Excerpt from Creative Tourism: A Global Conversation

Available on Amazon http://tinyurl.com/y8okg94

INTRODUCTION AND COMMON THEMESBy

Alex Pattakos , PhDAuthor, Prisoners of Our Thoughts

As suggested in the introduction to this book, Creative Tourism is as an idea whose time has come. The contributions to this section, each of which is based on a keynote presentation delivered at the Santa Fe International Conference on Creative Tourism, underscore and reinforce this contention, as well as seek to bring focus to its key, albeit still-evolving, attributes. As you read the contributions to this section, you’ll notice a number of common themes: the deeper meaning and spirit of place; an emphasis on co-creating tourist experiences; the need for engagement between all members of the tourism community of stakeholders; the sense of community and connectedness among/between these stakeholders; a focus and emphasis on transformation and transformative experiences; authenticity in both processes and products; local hospitality as a key ingredient for meaningful engagement; and the search for meaning as the primary, intrinsic motivation of human beings. To be sure, each author displays a unique perspective and places a different emphasis on these themes, and it is up to the reader to discern the deeper meaning and practical significance of their varying points of view.Author Charles Landry, in Experiencing Imagination: Travel as a Creative Trigger, warns that, within the context of the tourism experience, travel often times provides “too few chances to be creative, imaginative, inventive” and, concomitantly, does not touch the human spirit in meaningful ways. In his view, these unsuspecting tourists are therefore left shortchanged at best, and empty at worst, as a result of experiences that, for all practical and existential purposes, are disengaging—even hollow—in their bottom-line effects. Tourism experiences, under such a scenario, effectively and ultimately become encounters of the worst kind, not only for the tourist but also for the local economy that relies on them.It is against this backdrop that Landry sees the emergence of Creative Tourism as an antidote to the malaise that threatens tourism in a postmodern world. Moreover, Landry contextualizes the concept of Creative Tourism by summarizing and weaving together a number of related and pre-existing concepts, such as the creative city, creative economy, and creative class. One common thread, proposes Landry, is the notion of empowerment, that is, the need to shape one’s own destiny and, we could add, one’s identity, throughout the entire human experience. And this form of empowerment, in each case, is dependent upon opening up opportunities for authentic, meaningful, and creative expression.“Engaged detachment and distance, it seems, can clarify the mind,” observes Landry. In other words, by visiting places other than where one lives and works, especially places that offer opportunities that are authentic, meaningful, and creative, the tourism experience becomes a

laboratory and training ground for self-reflection and personal growth. Travel, in this way, becomes more than simply the act of visiting a place in a geographical sense; it becomes a pathway for exploring inner space as well.Crispin Raymond, a Creative Tourism consultant from New Zealand, discusses the origins of the term, Creative Tourism, from his own, very unique, personal experience. Indeed, he describes how the name “popped up in his head” after reading emails from his elder daughter who had been traveling through Southeast Asia and Australia. In this regard, he learned that his daughter had experienced connections with people in ways that most visitors never get to do. These connections had deep meaning both for her and for her hosts, much more so than most tourists encounter in their travels. Raymond’s “aha” moment came shortly after attending a lecture by Greg Richards, another keynote speaker at the Santa Fe International Conference on Creative Tourism and contributor to this volume, who shared concerns about what was being defined and practiced as cultural tourism. Besides beginning a collaboration and friendship with Richards, Raymond coined the term, Creative Tourism, as a way to describe what his daughter had experienced during her recent travels. In 2003, Raymond established a Creative Tourism business in New Zealand and Richards began to write about this emerging concept with the new name. They defined Creative Tourism as follows: “Tourism which offers visitors the opportunity to develop their creative potential through active participation in courses and learning experiences which are characteristic of the holiday destination where they are undertaken.”Building upon his keynote address, Jay Walljasper, a writer for NationalGeographic Traveler stresses a common theme, the importance of place, while seeking to integrate what he refers to as geotourism within the context of creative cities with our explicit focus on the concept of Creative Tourism. Rather than viewing tourists as a force that destroys the character of places, communities, and the environment, Walljasper, who is an experienced travel writer, chooses, instead, to believe that “travel could be something noble, born out of humans’ natural instinct to see this fascinating world of ours.”Geotourism, according to Walljasper, refers to tourism that sustains or enhances the character of a place, its environment, culture, aesthetics, heritage, and the well being of its residents. In other words, he says, it is “tourism done right.” And, importantly, when done right, tourism really can improve, instead of destroy, a place. Geotourism, in this connection, is closely related both to Creative Tourism and to cultural tourism. Moreover, like Creative Tourism and cultural tourism, geotourism is very much concerned about the soul or spirit of a place which, as mentioned, is another theme shared by each of the keynotes. Creative Tourism and geotourism, Walljasper argues, are ways “to protect the places we love, to prevent the homogenization and destruction of wonderfully unique places all over the world.” In “Discovering the Deeper Meaning of Tourism,” I begin by asserting that the search for meaning is a megatrend of the 21st century and that it is the primary intrinsic motivation of human beings. As a motivational force, meaning drives engagement within a wide range of personal and work-related contexts and, in turn, drives and sustains worker/customer satisfaction, performance, creativity, and innovation at the individual and collective levels. The search for meaning megatrend can also be applied to the cultivation of creative and innovation economies. In this connection, I would argue that the tourism sector offers unlimited possibilities in design and delivery to be authentically creative and meaningful, as well as to be an integral part of a jurisdiction’s innovation engine for community and economic development.

Moreover, by understanding how to leverage tourism from an innovation, not simply a creative perspective, another important dimension of the deeper meaning of tourism can be discovered and put to practical use. In my essay, I espouse a paradigm shift from creative economy to innovation economy, in which tourism is viewed as an integrated, meaning-focused strategy that adds maximum value and provides the highest return on investment for all stakeholders. Then Crispin Raymond returns with a cautionary tale about the practical challenges of developing a Creative Tourism initiative, based on his experience in New Zealand, into a sustainable business. Among the lessons learned, Raymond found that it was easier to establish a supply of Creative Tourism experiences than it was to create a demand for them. In addition, he learned that Creative Tourism experiences are very rewarding for all involved, and this observation reflects and reinforces Creative Tourism’s potential. Moreover, local traditions and skills are at the core of Creative Tourism experiences; in many countries, like New Zealand, these originate from the locales