CREATOUR AZORES – Turning the Azores into a Creative Tourism Destination

OVERVIEW

CREATOUR Azores is an integrated research-and-application project that aims to advance research focused on creative tourism in island regions, to diversify tourism offers in the Azores, and to strengthen links with other Portuguese regions where this model has already been implemented through the CREATOUR project. The main objective of CREATOUR Azores is to empower various agents located in the Azores archipelago to develop, implement, and promote creative tourism experiences through which tourists are provided opportunities to actively participate in creative activities providing opportunities for learning, creative self-expression, and interaction with local communities. A creative tourism approach allows both visitors and communities to benefit from tourism exchanges, promotes cultural vitality and sustainability, and allows artistic and creative activities to play a driving role in socio-economic development.

In addition, the CREATOUR Azores project intends to strengthen knowledge about specific market segments that may have greater interest in the products of creative tourism that can be offered in the region (matching profile characteristics and offers of specific destinations) and identify the most appropriate channels to communicate with these differentiated segments. Given the unique location and intrinsic characteristics of the Azores, there is a very high potential for the development of internationally attractive and unique creative tourism offers.

CREATOUR Azores is coordinated by the Observatory of Tourism of the Azores (OTA) and the University of the Azores, in partnership with the Centre for Social Studies (CES) of the University of Coimbra. It is funded by FEDER through the operational program Azores 2020 and by regional funds through the Regional Directorate of Science and Technology.

KEY ACTIVITIES

Within an integrated research-and-application framework, CREATOUR Azores will select, accompany, and learn through 5 pilot projects located throughout the Azores, develop an advisory commission of key organizations/stakeholders, provide training workshops involving international experts, organize an international conference (in autumn 2021), publish articles in scholarly journals, present communications in scientific meetings, and produce annual reports.

Research streams within the project include cultural mapping of resources, organizations, events, and initiatives related to creative tourism in the region; benchmarking and analysis of tourist profiles in the Azores; and analysis of creative tourism products in island destinations internationally. Other work will examine the pragmatic needs to develop creative tourism products, and develop strategic guidelines and an action plan to address them.

RESEARCH TEAM

Carlos Alberto Silva Melo Santos (coord.) – OTA
Maria Isabel Whitton da Terra Soares de Albergaria (co-coord.) – UAç, CHAM
Gualter Manuel Medeiros Couto – UAç, CEEAplA
Leonor Sampaio da Silva – UAç, CHAM
Pilar Sousa Lima Damião de Medeiros – CICS.NOVA.UAc
Greg Richards (consultant) – Tilburg University
Nancy Duxbury Carreiro (consultant) – CES
Rosa Maria Neves Simas (consultant) – CICS.NOVA.UAc
João Manuel Arruda Alves (Collaborator) – OTA
Sónia Céu (Collaborator) – OTA

Contact: geral@otacores.com

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