Last November 6th, hundreds of professionals attended the conference on creative tourism organized by the Creative Tourism Network® within the World Travel Market in London.
Three decision-makers of three very different kinds of destinations – namely Medellín, Tuscany, and Ibiza, shared their good practices on how to create a value chain through the creative tourism, that benefit the territorial development?
Mr. Alberto Peruzzini, Managing Director of Toscana Promozione Turistica, Mr. Moisés Vitola, Promotion coordinator of Greater Medellín Convention and Visitors Bureau, and Mr. Vicent Torres Ferrer, Director of Tourism of Ibiza Island Council, explained, from their different contexts, why their destinations are betting on creative tourism and what are the challenges and opportunities this supposes.
Moisés Vitola highlighted the opportunity the creative tourism offer to Medellín convert the communities’ creativity into unique experiences that enable the tourists to understand and appreciate the singularity of the city and to convert them into new ambassadors.
Alberto Peruzzini pointed out the relevance of creative tourism to diversify the tourist offer, by enhancing the intangible heritage. This gives the opportunity to the travelers to experience the “Tuscany’s lifestyle” and more particularly out of the main cities. The creative tourism also enables to create synergies with other segments and brands Tuscany is fostering, like the adventure one, the gastronomy, crafts, cultural routes, among others.
Vincent Torres Ferrer showed how Ibiza is using creative tourism to consolidate its unseasonal offer, by offering unique experiences co-designed by the local stakeholders, with the support of the administration. This leads to a very wide array of proposals that go from goat cheese making workshops, to fashion stylist workshop, passing through DJ training.
Caroline Couret, the director of the Creative Tourism Network®, who moderated the session, insisted on the importance of the value chain created within the process of implementation of such programs. The ideas and the creativity have to come from the bottom, that is to say from the local stakeholders, be they artists, artisans, fishermen, and are converted into marketable experiences, thanks to the training proposed by the administrations. This is the key to guaranteeing the authenticity and profitability of such programs. Such a guarantee is certified by the label “CreativeFriendlyDestination” officially delivered by the Creative Tourism Network®.
The session also gave the opportunity to introduce two recent members: the City of Quito and Les îles de la Madeleine (Magdalen Islands).
Finally, the Creative Tourism Awards were announced for the categories of Best Creative Travel Agency, Best Creative Residency and Best Creative Experiences.
The winners for 2018 are:
Best Creative Travel Agency: B-Holidays (France)
Best Creative Residency: Habiba Organic Farm, Egypt
Best Creative Experiences: DouroWellcome, Portugal
The application for the categories of Best Strategy for Creative Tourism Development and Best Creative Destination is still opened and will be announced next January.
