Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to address the gaps in research on strategic planning for the social impacts of small-scale events in rural areas and small cities. This is achieved by investigating the social utility inferred by small-scale art festivals with a creative tourism element in terms of increasing social capital and positive social change, from an event stakeholder perspective.Design/methodology/approach: The identified gap in knowledge is addressed by using interviews and fieldnotes from participant observation to co-create meaning with the organizers of four small-scale art festivals in small cities and rural areas in Portugal. Theoretical frameworks relating to creative tourism development and social capital creation are used to analyze the social utility of small-scale art festivals.Findings: Creative tourism activities are integrated within small-scale art festivals in small cities and rural areas in various ways, mainly through art-related workshops. Significant empirical data give insight into how small-scale art festivals create social value by increasing the host community’s pride and reinforcing the social fabric of the festival’s local and “portable” community, in part through these creative tourism activities.Research limitations/implications: One of the limitations of this study is that it focuses on the perspectives and insights of the festival organizers. An analysis of the festival participants’ views, local community stakeholder analysis and community impact analyses would offer further insights into how the creative tourism experiences and other moments of shared meaning generation within small-scale art festivals influence the creation of social utility.Originality/value: This paper offers insights into how creative tourism activities are being integrated into small-scale art festivals in small cities and rural contexts, and how these activities foster social connections among festival participants and with the local community. This addresses significant gaps in the literature on strategic planning for the social impacts of events, particularly in the context of small-scale events in rural areas/small cities, and the strategic value of including creative tourism activities within small-scale festivals.

A large number of destinations have been experimenting a changeover from the current massified cultural tourism to a creative tourism model. In this new model of tourism, urban territories have been privileged by its implementation, and in the past 20 years, urban studies on cultural and creative industries and initiatives have been taking place in large cities marginalizing small-sized cities and specifically rural areas. This article envisages assessing the differences between rural and urban institutions/platforms, mainly certified by the Creative Tourism Network, in what concerns the practices and offers in creative tourism worldwide. A database of 20 items was organized and a typology was used to categorize the type of territory of intervention for each institution. A total of 24 institutions from several countries were surveyed and a qualitative analysis was done and supported by the narratives of their leaders. Urban areas revealed to have a more active and diverse creative tourism activities. The results provide the need for more consolidated communication strategies and partnerships for these activities to become economically more sustainable. In addition, this research provides researchers and practitioners relevant information of how creative tourism is developed in rural and urban territories, the gaps and lack of information, and all the possible directions toward the development of the creative tourism industry.

Most of the strategies developed to “save” rural territories in Europe have not been successful. One of their main problems has been the adoption of the top-down paradigm when approaching the development of those territories. Portugal is a good example of the difficulty in adopting a bottom-up paradigm. The main objective of this paper is to present the perceptions of the local (including the residents) and regional stakeholders acting at Boticas, regarding the set of resources available and the development of the tourism industry. Boticas is a northern Portuguese, rural low-density municipality. In capturing those perceptions, the research contributes to the establishment of a more integrated and innovative development strategy and thus, a more capable strategy for profiting from the potential associated with the growth of the tourism industry that has been experienced recently in Portugal. The adoption of a mixed-method was suggested for evaluating these resources and capturing the perceptions of the tourist potential by different stakeholders. Empirical data was collected through a survey of 373 of its residents and 25 interviews conducted with local and regional actors, further supported by an inventory of the cultural resources and their capacity for visits. We conclude here that, residents tend to have a very positive perception of tourism development, and indeed, their perceptions largely met those of other stakeholders.

This article analyses the managerial practices implemented by international organisations that provide platforms for promoting and carrying out creative tourism activities and workshops. The methodology of this research was conducted in four phases. The first phase consisted of Internet-based research to identify organisations involved in creative tourism and 24 institutions were found. In the second phase, we analysed the information provided on the institutions’ websites. In the third phase, we prepared an interview script and sent it to those institutions. We received 12 positive replies and held a semi-structured interview with those managers. In the last phase, the narratives of the interviews were subjected to content analysis. The 12 managers interviewed, between the ages of 35 and 56, belong to public and private entities and lead technical teams. The studied institutions displayed good practices for creative tourism and strategic lines to consolidate this tourist product in the future. This study is pertinent and original because no international study has analysed in detail the management practices implemented by creative tourism platforms and a consistent characterisation of the profile of the creative tourist is yet to be outlined. It can also help institutions involved in creative tourism to better understand the international state of the field in this tourism segment.

A consensus has not yet been reached worldwide regarding the concept of creative tourism. Since 2000, it has been considered as a kind of tourism that can offer tourists the opportunity to co-create and develop their creative potential. Internationally, networks and platforms have been developed to profile and promote this kind of tourism but these organizations have not been systematically examined. In 2017, an investigation was carried out to identify and analyze existing practices, primarily using qualitative methods and focusing on content analysis. Research was conducted using Google (to locate websites) and a database with 20 analysis topics was created. An in-depth analysis was made of the platforms and networks in creative tourism that are being developed worldwide, and the initiatives undertaken by each institution. The main results show that not all initiatives referred to as ‘creative experiences’ have identifiable creative content or focus, or can be considered to have something to do with co-creation. Some of the institutions have more learning experiences than creative ones. Most of them can be found in southern Europe and the existing ones may still be diversified in the future.