Creative tourism in destination development

Abstract

Purpose ‐ The aim of this article is to identify the stakeholders’ attitudes, values and feelings on destination development in the framework of creative tourism. Design/methodology/approach ‐ The research questions focus on tourist participation, innovative partnership, guest‐host meetings and money spent in the destination. The focus group method with snowball sampling was chosen as the research method. Findings ‐ Central outcomes can be divided into ten different categories: socio‐physical environment of the destination, service structure, consumer behaviour, information and communication technologies, traffic, logistics and accessibility, networking, tourism demand and supply, local resources, marketing and PR. Research limitations/implications ‐ Although focus group research has many advantages, there are limitations. In this case the moderators did not have full control all the time due to the more topical themes that interested the participants; focus group research is often open‐ended. Practical implications ‐ The whole issue of the present case revolves around the question why destinations want to be creative or why they need to be creative in the present competitive situation. Creativity should be an integral part of the tourism offering just as tourism is an integral part of the planning and development of a destination. Originality/value ‐ It can be concluded that the future issues and research topics seem to focus on five themes. Most of what was said can be ascribed to the need for a forum for decision makers and tourism actors to discuss holistic and long‐term planning of tourism in the destination.

Citation

Lindroth, K., Ritalahti, J. and Soisalon‐Soininen, T. (2007), "Creative tourism in destination development", Tourism Review, Vol. 62 No. 3/4, pp. 53-58. https://doi.org/10.1108/16605370780000322