More than 100 participants from 24 countries gathered in Barcelona on the occasion of the first International Conference on Creative Tourism Network in order to discuss the virtues and benefits of developing the rapidly growing field of creative tourism in Europe. For the first time, Austria was represented through the new platform Kreativ Reisen Österreich - Creative Tourism Austria.

Thanks to his extensive knowledge and background on cultural and creative tourism and being one of the co-founders of the creative tourism concept, Greg Richards of Tilburg University in the Netherlands provided many a key statements during the conference: “What I normally hear at tourism conferences throughout Europe is: We need more money to do things. At this conference, however, what I hear is, “We have ideas. Let’s apply them!”

Hands-on travelling: Welcome to creative tourism!

Creative tourism is a new form of cultural tourism and has only recently been given its own name. Its “founding fathers” are Greg Richards and Crispin Raymond of Creative Tourism New Zealand (www.creativetourism.co.nz), who defined creative tourism in 2003 as learning a skill on holiday that is part of the culture of the country or community being visited.