Defined in 2000 by Greg Richards, Professor of Leisure Studies at Tilburg University in The Netherlands, and Crispin Raymond, leader of a specialized consulting firm, creative tourism is “Tourism which offers visitors the opportunity to develop their creative potential through active participation in learning experiences which are characteristic of the holiday destination where they are undertaken”
Creative activities open up the scope of possibilities and allow tourists to live experiences in immersion. The tourist goes home with the souvenir that he has created. This experiential tourism fosters the discovery of specific crafts from each destination while being in a collaborative dimension.
This tourism gives meaning and connects people, the tourist feels like a citizen involved in the territory he’s visiting. Creative Tourism promotes the identity of each destination.
Creative tourism is no longer a niche but a strong trend that is currently popular among tourists and locals.
However, there is no exhaustive classification in France of professionals creative workshops welcoming short term visitors. Tourists must seek activities randomly, tourist prescribers have no way to perceive, display and sell the great richness of their territory know-how.
Creative France, the website, will satisfy this double need: tourists looking for creative workshops and tourist prescribers, or paying attention to new demands and guarantors of their territory’s wealth. This touristic offer is also accessible to local people and a way for them to take a fresh look at their land.
We believe that if Paris has become a destination known for its creative experiences and active tourism practices, it is also possible for any territory. CREATIVE FRANCE aims to become the reference solution for creative tourism.
Excerpt from the OECD report of September 26, 2014: “Tourism and Creative Economy”. Creative Tourism is identified as a source of growth: “Creative tourism differs from conventional models of cultural tourism in its own foundation: intangible skills and intellectual assets (…) It appears that these new models of creative tourism can bring significant added value, increase tourism demand and diversify supply (…) Innovation generated by the creative industries brings forth new developments, including the emergence of new creative intermediaries and ones from the sharing economy, and the development of relational tourism (…)”.
