Essay Example Dedicated to Creative Hubs and Creative Tourism

A creative hub is a podium for designers, app developers, musicians, artists, and start-up entrepreneurs. Creative hubs can be static, mobile and online. However, they are unique in the services, structure, and sector. Creative hubs play a huge role in developing specific types of attractions and activities in tourism. This research paper will discuss how a creative hub contributes to the shaping of creative tourism through creativity, creative industries, cities, spaces, and sustainable tourism development.

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Creativity, Creative Hubs and Creative Tourism

According to Sternberg and Lubart (1999), creativity is the capacity to come up with an original and appropriate work. Creativity is a useful concept in tourism when talking about creative hubs. It helps in developing new findings, art movements, inventions, and social programs in tourism. Creative hubs add the economic value of tourism attractions and destinations by creating jobs and making new products and providing new services to the tourists (OECD, 2014). The cognitive and social personality approaches to creativity support the use of creative hubs in shaping creative tourism. Based on the cognitive theories of creativity, artists-tourists usually construct mental representations to come up with inventive structures to promote creative discoveries in tourism. Further, the development of creative ideas promotes creative inventions that lead to transformation (Sternberg & Lubart, 1999). The social personality theories to creativity explain how the social-cultural environment becomes a source of creativity. Creative people in society take the initiative to realize their full potential in creative tourism.

Creative hubs are defined as specific types of developments in the field of culture as well as well as the creative economy. The new creative economies support the growth and performance prospects in tourism (Evans, 2009). Creative tourism entails the enjoyment of attractions and activities associated with interactive and experiential creative industries. Creative technologies, talent, and tolerance are factors that enhance creative economies for creative tourism. Therefore, creativity and competitiveness work together in creative hubs to shape creative tourism (Florida, 2004).

Creative Industries and Creative Tourism

Based on the emergence of creative tourism in the past two decades, creative hubs shape the field through the engagement of creative sectors. These sectors create knowledge and skills that artists deploy in developing the wider economy (OECD, 2014). Creative hubs have reshaped creative tourism by doing away with the traditional learning experiences of culture and creativity. In creative tourism, new models of are used to integrate tourism and creative industries as one. All stakeholders including consumers, producers, knowledge institutions and policymakers come together to shape the new creative tourism (OECD, 2014).

In a study carried out by Lampel and Germain (2016), it is evident that creative industries act of hubs of new organizational and business practices. These creative industries are sources of managerial innovation and experimentation for organizations and governments. This assertion connects to creative tourism whereby creative industries such as film, music, designers and interactive software companies make use of the innovations in the sectors to come up with new organizational and business practices (Lampel & Germain, 2016). The OECD (2014) adds that creative sectors including design, gaming, animation, and fashion are giving tourism new markets and diversifying its demand. The new technologies used in creative hubs generate new tourist experiences and provide new approaches to developing and disseminating experiences through the use of social networks. As creative industries, these hubs give celebrities a chance to popularize and legitimize their businesses and organizational practices. They offer new possibilities for creative tourism where artists can participate with audiences and co-creation with customers, increase engagement and develop innovative knowledge about the needs of consumers. For instance, the use of technology by creative hubs has enhanced customer experiences through effective interphases and attractive designs of tourism experiences (OECD, 2014). Bloggers and creative content producers promote the creative hubs to operate as the new creative intermediaries for innovative tourism.

Creative industries provide a transformational value chain for artist-tourists to further develop and diffuse their innovations wherever they arise. The improved economy through tourism gives an opportunity to entrepreneurs in coming up with business ideas, promote self-employment, job creation and social cohesion in the hubs (Pratt & Jeffcutt, 2009). As stated by the OECD (2014), there is a connection between the creative industries and tourism. Creative industries build on the culture of specific communities within the hubs to enhance tourism. They economically contribute to the growth of tourism in different nations. A rich culture means improved tourism. Therefore, creative industries as hubs shape creative tourism by enhancing the creativity in the sector. These hubs generate an added value by integrating tourism and creativity to create tourism demand, development of new creative tourism products and services as well as improving the quality and attractiveness of a place. These are similar views to those of Sternberg and Lubart (1999) on the usefulness of creativity in developing new markets and innovations. These creative hubs support and stimulate creative exports in the tourism sector. Value creation is achieved through the integration of tourism experiences and the creative content as well as concepts used by artists-tourists. The new and creative content reach the targeted groups and improves the image as well as the competitiveness of the tourist destinations (OECD, 2014).

Creative Cities and Spaces as Creative Hubs

Creative city initiatives and plans contribute to the shaping of creative tourism. Local-cultural and creative quarters have developed cities and spaces as creative hubs for public and private investment (Evans, 2009). Creative hubs develop common meeting places for artists-tourists. In these places, artists-tourists explore the urban culture and create tourism business that promotes economic growth. The Romantso in Greece is a good example of a listening space for tourists for the music program. Artists and musicians undertake their art festivals from different nations as a way of extending tourism and create awareness of creative tourism. The cities and spaces expand the cultural industries of a nation to concentrate in one urban district. The new knowledge and experience of the economy promote the creative spaces through the use of innovative versions of digital media and science city. Creative tourism is further shaped through the redevelopment of initial and remaining industrial zones in the urban cities. The phenomenon of creative industries explains the new economic development in tourism. There urban processes such as regeneration are achieved in their physical forms including cultural flagships, mega-events, and waterfronts (Evans, 2005). Therefore, creative tourism is shaped through the use of creative quarters and knowledge hubs to expand and regenerate city plans.

Creative Hubs and Sustainable Development in Tourism

One of the countries that demonstrate how creative hubs shape creative tourism is Korea. The Korean government promotes a creative economy that expands creative industries to come up with the new value and sustainable development (OECD, 2014). It shows that creative hubs are created through scientific technology and culture to develop high and value-added convergence tourism such as conferences, exhibitions, meetings, medical tourism, incentives and Hallyu-related tourism in Korea. The new mobilities paradigm is being useful in understanding creative tourism. Sustainable tourism promotes community wellbeing (Moscardoa, Konovalova, Murphya, & McGeheeb, 2013). In the Australian context, researchers have found that the Grey Nomads, Temporary Workers, Archetypal Tourists, Amenity Migrants, Grey Nomads, and Backpackers are different mobilities that promote creative tourism. Mobility impacts tourism by providing different perceptions of the destinations, resources to the destination communities, and the impact of the shared spaces by the tourists. Sustainable tourist planners have a role in recognizing the above factors when deciding on destinations for different types of tourists.

Conclusion

In conclusion, creative hubs contribute to the shaping of creative tourism through increased creativity in the tourism sector, creative industries, spaces, cities and the contribution of sustainable tourism development. Artists, designers, app and software developers participate in the creative industries to promote creative tourism. Creation of innovative tourist destinations and activities through the creative hubs has shaped the new model of creative tourism. Governments and organizations are embracing creative cities and spaces in regenerating tourist attractions and destinations. Sustainable initiatives through the new mobilities paradigm are guiding sustainable tourist planners to consider important aspects for visitors when designing tourism activities.

References

Evans, G. (2009). Creative Cities, Creative Spaces and Urban Policy. Urban Studies, 46(5&6); 1003-1040.

Florida, R. (2004). America's looming creativity crisis. Harvard Business Review, 82(10); 122-124.

Lampel, J., & Germain, O. (2016). Creative industries as hubs of new organizational and business practices. Journal of Business Research, 69, 2327-2333.

Moscardoa, G., Konovalova, E., Murphya, L & McGeheeb, N. (2013). Mobilities, community well-being, and sustainable tourism. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 21(4); 532-556.

OECD (2014), Tourism and the Creative Economy, OECD Studies on Tourism, OECD Publishing.

Pratt, A., & Jeffcutt, P. (2009). Creativity, innovation and the cultural economy: Snake oil for the 21st century? In A. C. Pratt, & P. Jeffcutt (Eds.), Creativity, innovation in the cultural economy. London: Routledge. 1-20.

Sternberg, R., & Lubart, T. (1999). The concept of creativity: Prospects and paradigms. In R. J. Sternberg (Ed.), Handbook of creativity. 3-16..