Creative Tourism
Creative tourism Thailand
Creative tourism seems to be a new trend in tourism phenomenon which its goal is intending tourists to have and insightful understanding of host cultural and historical assets which each destination possesses its own uniqueness, and visitors can exercise close participation with the local cultures. Actually the Creative tourism is not a new concept.
Since people have been travelling for various purposes for a long time, many of them do not only spend their holiday by just for sunbathe, but enjoy their free time in the afternoon joining cooking class to learn how to cook traditional food of the host country. Honeymooners who choose to stay at a resort in the jungle way for the River Kwai Bridge of Kanchanburi province in Thailand may not stay only in their rooms. Since the career of many households in that area is basket weaving from abundant bamboo, they can learn how to make their own bamboo baskets.
More people are trying to participate in local activity and engage in authentic experience from people of the host country instead of just to witness what the locals do, or passive consumers of local culture of the country they visit. Robert Maitland, (Maria D. Alvarez: 170) draws on the idea regarding the boundaries between the residents and the tourists that it starts disappearing and that visitors are more likely interested in having direct interaction in the daily life of residents in the city. The broad definition of creative tourism (Anonymous, 2008:15) emphasizes travelers’ active participation in the engagement of community’s tradition.
Creative tourism provides authentic experience through which tourists have involved and it also becomes a means for growth of the economy of the destination people visited. Creative tourism is a further stage or en extension part of cultural tourism has been posed as an extension of cultural tourism (Richards & Wilson, 2006; cited in Greg Richards, 2011: 1237).
During the 90’s the attention was paid more on creativity both in the rural and the city areas. One of the examples to be witnessed was the development of ‘crafts tourism’; the example was showcased in the EUROTEX project in Finland, Greece and Portugal 1996 to 1999 (Richards, 1998, 2005, cited in Greg Richards, 2011:1237). The project demonstrated the vernacular culture in everyday life and enthusiasm to be involved in the activity.
The result of the project inspired, Richards and Raymond (2000, p.18: cited in Greg Richards, 2011:1237) to provide the first investigation on creative tourism and came up with the following definition: ‘‘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’’ Later, the United Nations Educational, Scientifics and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Creative Cities Net-work, produced another definition (cited in Greg Richards, 2011:1237):
“Creative tourism is travel directed toward an engaged and authentic experience, with participative learning in the arts, heritage, or special character of a place and it provides a connection with those who reside in this place and create this living culture.”
These two most commonly referred definitions of creative tourism inspire the characteristics of the tourists who participate in the activity who can be names “creative tourist”. Since there is no specific research conducted on the characteristics of creative tourists, from the definitions of the term, the characteristics of the visitors could possibly be the visitors who;
- are willing to step beyond traditional ways of cultural tourism;
- search for alternatives;
- look for an authentic active, engaging, participative, learning and transformative holiday experience;
- want to participate in creative activities for personal skill development;
- expect their active tourist experience to allow them to interact intensely and reflexively with the host community; and
- use this touristic experience as a part of her identity formation
In addition to the matter on the concept of “creative tourist”, Duygu Salman and Duygu Uygur, (2010 cited in Creative Tourism New Zealand, 2009); Creative Tourism Santa Fe Experiences, 2009; Global Creative Tourism Industry News, 2009; Art in Tropical Australia, 2009) stated that creative tourist expect differently from other types of tourists which creative travelers want to be “real actors” in the “real/authentic lives of hosts”, the role of creative tourism is help them to get in a closer contact with the locals in order to explore their culture in depth and to get the taste of authenticity.
After the first definition coined by Raymond (2007: cited in Greg Richards, 2011:1237), later he revised his own definition after his trip from the experience in development on creative tourism in New Zealand as: “A more sustainable form of tourism that provides an authentic feel for a local culture through informal, hands-on workshops and creative experiences. Workshops take place in small groups at tutors’ homes and places of work; they allow visitors to explore their creativity while getting closer to local people”. In New Zealand, creative concept is actively be develop for commercial purposes.(Greg Richards and Julie Wilson, 2007:1)
Moreover concept of creative tourism drawn by Richards and Wilson,2006 Duygu Salman and Duygu Uygur,2010:186) offers tourism researchers “a comparatively unexplored area where a new type of tourist steps beyond the traditional ways of tourism and constructs are definition of the notions of authentic experience and cultural interaction within the inventive and imaginative framework of creativity”
The reasons tourism trend has shifted to creative tourism due to the behavior of the tourists changes , one of the participants who join the conference on creative tourism in Santa Fe in 2006 (ภัทรพงศ์ อินทรกำเนิดและคณะ, 2010) stated that forms of tourism has been shifted from beach tourism to cultural tourism where by tourists can admire local culture and museum. At present the tourism trend move to another stage- creative tourism. Tourists search for destinations where they can have interactive communication with locals in order to absorb the idea, feeling, and participate in the daily activity as if they were members of that community. To cope with the change of the behavior of the tourists, the hosts who have tourism products in hand need to adjust their attitude towards such changes by realizing that creative tourists are not passive any more. Rebecca Warzberg expressed her idea on this issue to Tribunes Business News on 17 February2010 (Sharpe, 2006) that “Tourist wants to have hands-on experience. They don’t just want to buy more. They want to experience a place in a different world”. In order to provide the right service or activity to those tourists, hosts should review the type of tourism resources they possess and creatively present it to guest. The challenge of the stake holders, such as locals, related government sector to promote creative tourism is how to empress their guests in the creative tourism parameter which is different from other tourism products and services.