Profiling the participants in creative tourism activities: Case studies from small and medium sized cities and rural areas from Continental Portugal

Jaime Serra,Sónia Cabeça,Alexandra Gonçalves,Nancy Duxbury,Noémi Marujo,Paula Remoaldo,Juliana Alves

doi:10.1016/j.tmp.2020.100746

Abstract

Although cultural tourists increasingly seek to experience cultural events actively and to directly engage in creative activities, empirical knowledge about the creative tourist remains limited. This study aims to characterize the motivations and profile of creative tourists. The data was collected through a survey of participants in creative tourism activities in Portugal developed by 40 pilot institutions of the CREATOUR project during 2017 and 2018, with 814 usable questionnaires collected and validated. The questionnaire had 30 questions and marked the first time this kind of research was conducted in Portugal. The questionnaire included questions on: the composition of their travel companions, their previous participation in a creative tourism experience, reasons for visiting the destination, their characterization of the creative tourism experience, an evaluation of their creative tourism experience, and their socio-demographic profile. Using a cluster analysis to analyse the data, three clusters were found: Novelty-Seekers, Knowledge and Skills Learners, and Leisure Creative-Seekers.

Highlights

In the 1980s, Alvin Toffler (1980) pioneered the concept of “prosumer” to refer to a type of consumer involved in product design and in production itself
This paper aims to characterize the profile of the tourists who participated in these activities and their motivations, attending to the following three questions: Who are the participants in creative tourism activities? What are the main motivations to attend a creative tourism activity? Can motivation be used to segment creative tourism participants?
The research sought to answer the following questions: Who are the participants in creative tourism activities? What are the main motivations to attend a creative tourism activity? Can motivation be used to segment creative tourism participants?

Summary

Introduction

In the 1980s, Alvin Toffler (1980) pioneered the concept of “prosumer” to refer to a type of consumer involved in product design and in production itself. With the diffusion of the concept of prosumer – a fusion of the words “producer” and “consumer” – since that time, the consumer has become the producer of many of the products and experiences he consumes. Regardless of the term applied, they all refer to tourists who actively create their experience in the destinations they choose This new consumer of experiences has played an increasingly active role in the economy, leaving aside the passivity characteristic of the 1980s, to play an essential role in market communication (Egger, Gula, & Walcher, 2016; Kotler, Kartajaya, Setiawan, & Vandercammen, 2012; Tan et al, 2014; Zhang & Yu, 2018). The creative tourist can be seen as a prototype of the prosumer (Fundação de Serralves, 2008; Tan et al, 2014; Egger et al, 2016; Zhang & Yu, 2018)

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion