Creative Tourism Experiences in Guimarães: A Twofold Analysis of Visitors’ and Suppliers’ Perspectives

Abstract

Considering its genesis and evolution, creative tourism can be seen as a development of cultural tourism, more suited to respond not only to the needs of contemporary travellers, who are seeking for more active, fulfilling and meaningful experiences, but also to the need of destinations to stand out and ensure the differentiation of their offer. Although creative tourism is receiving increasing attention in the literature due to its rising positioning as a development strategy, studies have been focusing primarily on the supply-led perspective. Hence, more research is needed, particularly to investigate consumer views’ on the creative experiences being delivered, since they have often been appointed as a value driver of today’s tourism products. Given the above, the objective of this exploratory study is to understand the perceptions of both visitors and tourism services providers. The geographical context of this study is Guimarães, a cultural destination in the north of Portugal, classified as World Heritage Site by UNESCO.  Visitors’ perceptions will be collected through a survey, based on a self-administrated questionnaire. In the case of tourism services providers, namely hotels, restaurants and leisure businesses, data will be collected through a semi-structured interview. The findings of this study are expected to offer insights regarding the development and promotion of long-lasting creative experiences. The limited studies approaching the visitors’ perspective, specifically in this kind of destinations, makes this study a contribution to the literature on creative tourism.