The evolution of alternative forms of Tourism: a theoretical background

Business & Entrepreneurship Journal, vol. 6, no. 1, 2017, 39-59

ISSN: 2241-3022 (print version), 2241-312X (online)

Scienpress Ltd, 2017

The evolution of alternative forms of Tourism: a

theoretical background

Triarchi Ei.

and

Karamanis K.

Abstract

Between the 1970s and early 1980s new forms of tourism emerged in developing

countries as an alternative solution to the “undesired” type of tourism “the mass

tourism” or “the conventional/commercial tourism” or “the traditional tourism”.

These forms of tourism appearing in different names and various models, served a

more sensitive approach giving priority to natural and cultural resources at the

front line of planning and development. The purpose of this paper is to describe

the theoretical background of alternative tourism in which origins and main

definitions are presented followed by an analysis of the complexity of classifying

the alternative forms of tourism. Three of the many forms, seemed to be the core

of alternative tourism, are distinguished and analyzed. The ecotourism, the

cultural tourism and the creative tourism. Ecotourism in recent years, encloses

many tourist forms focused on natural environment. Although these forms are

closely related to ecotourism need to be distinguished from it as ecotourism

presents many dimensions. In the concept of alternative tourism, the dynamic

growth of cultural tourism can be explained by the fast growth of demand for trips

to various cultural attractions and amenities. A rise in interest of tourists both to

distant cultures and to the local heritage occurred through the increase of educated

people around the world and the globalization. Moreover, technology supported

this growth. The cultural tourist, from consumer is transforming to producer of the

cultural products and experiences. As culture tourist become more interactive and

creative, the cultural tourism need to be repositioned and to become more

“creative”. In “creative tourism” there is a co-creation of creative experiences

between visitors and hosts, usually expressed through the creation of networks,

itineraries, courses and events. Finally, the paper ends with a brief mention on the

current trends in alternative tourism and the concluding remarks.

Keywords: Alternative tourism, Ecotourism, Culture tourism, Creative tourism

Department of Accounting and Finance, Technological Educational Institute of Epirus, Greece,

40 Triarchi and Karamanis

1 Origins and main Definitions of Alternative Forms of

Tourism

Although tourism has been acknowledged for its tremendous economic and social

benefits, being an economic saviour providing jobs and increase in GDP, it has

been accused as a source of a wide range of serious problems, especially in

developing economies. For example the fact that it creates huge economic leakage

as the most investment of tourism is coming from western multinational

companies (MNEs) in which the income from tourism sector would flow back

(Smith, 1989). Macleod (2004) supports that tourism change the composition of

the working population from traditional industries of agriculture to service-based

tourism and hospitality industries disturbing the community and its cultural

identity. Four main influential phenomena led to the need of a different approach

in tourism, these are: 1) economic issues like the fact that economic growth did

not solve the poverty problem, 2) environmental issues referring to mass tourism

influence on the environment, 3) political issues reflecting the political economy

of the international tourism industry which turned to be a natural continuation of

historical inequalities between the First World and the Third World, and 4) social

issues including the new traveler market of post-modern culture.

Thus, the “new” form of tourism aroused and many people accepted it

instinctively even though they could not precisely defined it. Still, today is

surprising that no universally agreed or widely adopted definition of alternative

tourism is to be found, nor that few explicit lines between its different forms have

been made. This different approach would have fewer and less severe negative

effects on destination areas and their populations, and would still enjoy the

positive economic effects, so as to appear as the optimal solution. This new

“form” of tourism emerged as an alternative solution to the most undesired type of

tourism “the mass tourism” or “the conventional/commercial tourism” or “the

traditional tourism”.

It is alternative to large numbers of visitors, to clumsy and unregulated

development, to environmental destruction, to social alienation and

homogenization. “Mass tourists” enjoy the convenience of not to having to make

their own travel arrangements, not to having to spend a large amount of money or

time, not to be obliged to learn a foreign language in order to buy goods and

enjoy services in their tourist destination. This type of tourists are ready to

abandon the genuine authentic local cultural contact, and the Third World or Old

World seemed to provide these benefits to them. (Butler , 1992).

Eventually, the “new” forms of tourism made their appearance in developing

countries between the 1970s and early 1980s, in order to tackle the hard mass

tourism. These forms of tourism served a more sensitive approach giving priority

to natural and cultural resources at the front line of planning and development.

They appeared in different names and various models to improve situation and to

preserve the original rural appeal of the tourist destination. They involved projects

The evolution of alternative forms of Tourism 41

that were small-scale, involving low-level of investments, low-key in nature,

independent and self-sustaining and demanding the high participation of the local

inhabitants. (Their main characteristics are described table 1). The involvement of

local population would improve contacts between hosts and their foreign guests,

would offer a more authentic, meaningful and satisfying experience for both the

visitor and the host. Dernoi in 1981 related the term “alternative tourism” with

accommodation type as “in alternative tourism the client receives accommodation

directly in or at home of the host with, eventually, other services and facilities

offered there” (Dernoi, 1981, pp. 253-264). Few years later, he added other

features to alternative tourism that distinguished from mass tourism, resulting to

the fact that in alternative tourism individuals, families, or a local community

offers privately to the visitors, a set of hospitality services. Thus, alternative

tourism aims at establishing direct personal and cultural intercommunication and

understanding between host and visitor (Dernoi L. A., 1988). These definitions

supports the facilitation and improvement of contacts between visitors and visited,

in order a cultural exchange and intercommunication of both parties, to be

obtained. Donald Macleod (1998) suggests a number of principles for giving a

better definition of alternative tourism. These principles are the followings:

a) it should be based on dialogue with the local population which must be

informed of its effects,

b) it should be environmental friendly and attributing respect to local culture and

to religious tradition,

c) the scale of tourism should be adjusted to the capacity of the local area to cope,

measured in aesthetic and ecological terms. (Herms, 2006) .

According to Holden, in the mid- 80s, alternative tourism “is a process which

promotes a just form of travel between members of different communities. It seeks

to achieve mutual understanding, solidarity and equality amongst participants”.

Holden focused on evolving the interrelation of guests and hosts, through the

arrangement of well-organized special interest tours, rather on actual development

of facilities (Holden, 1984,p.15:cited in Smith & Eadington, 1992. p.18).

Alternative tourism is seen then as ‘forms of tourism that are consistent with

natural, social, and community values and which allow both hosts and guests to

enjoy positive and worthwhile interaction and shared experiences’ (Smith &

Eadington, 1992, p.3).

In Europe, especially in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, in the early 1980s, the

term that was used to explain the new form of tourism was “soft tourism” as its

main feature was the importance to environmental issues and the promotion of

ecologically friendly development policies. Chur Declaration of the Commission

Internationale pour La Protection des Regions Alpines (CIPRA) defined soft

tourism as “the mutual understanding between the local population and the guests,

which does not endanger the cultural identity of the host region and which

endeavors to take care of the environment as best as possible. Soft tourists give

priority to using infrastructures destines for the local population and do not accept

42 Triarchi and Karamanis

substantial tourist facilities harmful to the environment” (Broggi 1985,p.286 cited

in Pearce 1992,p.18).

The term “New Tourism” was proposed in 1979 by Rosenow and Pulsipher, for

the American tourism industry as a new way to growth, claiming that not only the

visitors, but also the communities would be benefit as they would develop a tourist

industry based on their unique assets. New Tourism was based on eight principles:

1) unique heritage and environment, 2) evolving special quality of attractions, 3)

effort to developing other local attractions, 4) economic opportunity and cultural

enrichment, 5) local services, 6) marketing communication, 7) adjust assets to

local carrying capacity and 8) preventing waste of energy.

The use of the term “alternative tourism” turns to be problematic, as the forms of

alternative tourism are closely related to the principle of sustainable development,

making the term “sustainable tourism” more accurate in describing the “new”

forms of tourism. According to Holden (2003), the sustainable tourism is more

compatible with the natural environment than the conventional mass tourism.

Vegetation, animal habitats, and prime agricultural land made way for new

infrastructure through deforestation which harmed the ecosystem and landscape

(Holden 2003 cited in Wearing & Grabowski, 2011). In nowadays, according to

UNWTO “sustainable tourism development guidelines and management practices

are applicable to all forms of tourism in all types of destinations, including mass

tourism and the various niche tourism segments. Sustainability principles refer to

the environmental, economic, and socio-cultural aspects of tourism development,

and a suitable balance must be established between these three dimensions to

guarantee its long-term sustainability” (UNEP & UNWTO, 2005). Sustainable

tourism is becoming so popular that some say that what we presently call

‘alternative’ will be the ‘mainstream’ in a decade.

Smith and Eadington (1992) quoted Nash’s and Butler academic report’s (1989)

that “the concept of alternative tourism has little scientific values and that a more

acceptable substitute phrase would be alternative forms of tourism”.

Table 1: Characteristics of alternative tourism

Small scale of development with high rates of local ownership

Minimized negative environmental and social impacts

Maximized linkages to other sectors of the local economy, such as agriculture, reducing a

reliance upon imports

Retention of the majority of the economic expenditure from tourism by local people

Localised power sharing and involvement of people in the decision- making process

Pace of development directed and controlled by local people rather than external influences.

(Source: Holden 2000, p.92 cited in Benson, 2005, p.134)

The evolution of alternative forms of Tourism 43

2 The complexity of classifying the Alternative forms of

tourism

Since the “new” tourism arrived, many forms of it have been emerged gradually

which sources found in many different aspects of contemporary economic and

social life. The special groups of “new” tourists are seemed to be motivated to

travel for different reasons, formulating both similar and controversial types of

alternative tourism. This is to one point a consequence of the fact that even though

alternative tourism has been receiving ever-growing academic attention, the

differences in its interpretation of each academic caused the definition of and

correct terminology for the alternative tourism to be contentious. The only point

that the academics have in common, is their opposition towards package or mass

tourism. Others suggests that “the alternative tourism paradigm must be examined

as an overarching umbrella term, under which the diversity of other forms of

tourism or niche markets lay” (Benson, 2005). Sometimes, ecotourism or

sustainable tourism or justice tourism are described as synonymous to alternative

tourism and other times as its different forms, making classification complicated.

In this part, some of the main different approaches that lead to specific

classifications would be presented.

There are several facets of alternative tourism that nurture societal and ecological

restructuring, naturally of interest would be ecotourism, sustainable tourism, pro-

poor tourism (PPT), fair trade, community-based tourism, peace through tourism,

volunteer tourism and justice tourism (Isaak, 2010) . Eco-tourism is seemed as one

of the best ways to conjoin economic development with environmental

sustainability. Butler’s concept of sustainable tourism is that of ‘tourism in the

context of sustainable development’. PPT appeared lastly and is more an approach

to tourism development and management that strengthens the connections

between tourism businesses and poor people, in order tourism sector to support the

elimination of poverty and poor people to have the opportunity to take part to the

development of the product. It is expected that PPT will improve the quality of life

of local inhabitants. Peace through tourism focuses on the kinds of tourism that

favors more peaceful relations. The formal way to explain the relationship

between tourism and peace, is to assure that the cross-cultural international

tourism nurtures harmonious relations. Peace tourism can contribute to

reconciliation of two nations and generally of juxtaposed groups of people in

conflict situations securing their co-existence (Isaak, 2010). Volunteer tourism

emerged as a response to growing social and environmental issues in developing

countries and as a response to physical disasters and terrorism’s attacks. It

includes short-term projects with the intention of serving communities in need.

According to Wearing, volunteer tourists have been defined those who “ volunteer

in an organized way to undertake holidays that might involve aiding or alleviating

the material poverty of some groups in society, the restoration of certain

environments or research into aspects of environment” (Wearing, 2001, p.1 cited

44 Triarchi and Karamanis

in Wearing & Grabowski, 2011,p.149). Justice tourism has only recently been

recognized as an emerging trend and given a name. Some authors equate justice

tourism with alternative tourism, based on Holden’s definition (1984) of

alternative tourism as “a process which promotes a just form of travel between

members of different communities. It seeks to achieve mutual understanding,

solidarity and equality amongst participants”. Justice tourism tries to humanize the

tourism industry, in the sense that, “oppressed people are engaging with the

tourism sector to offer heritage tours, and these tours can endorse visitors’

understanding of human rights and justice issues while at the same time giving

voice to the local communities to speak for themselves and tell their own stories of

current oppression and occupation” (Isaak & Hodge, 2011,p.103).

Angela Benson (2005) suggests “research tourism” to be contextualised within the

“alternative tourism paradigm” and more speciffically the educational, scientific

and volunteer sectors. Modern “educational” tourism refers to opportunities that

colleges and universities offer to travel and study abroad. It includes “school trips

and language schools, university and college students in terms of study abroad,

fieldtrips and exhanges, and the adult and seniors market, including cookery, art,

gardening courses in exotic locations, and specialist oreganisers and nature-based

and cultural educational toursim programmes” (Carr and Cooper, 2003, Carr,2003,

Ritchie,2003 cited in Benson 2005). Mieczkowski (1995) views “scientific

tourism” as a form of eco-tourism in the sence that it protects environment,

motivates individuals or groups to visite various eco-systems under the leaderhip

of highly qualified scientists.

In a more simple and different way, alternative tourism is the generic term

encompasses a range of tourism forms such as ‘eco’, ‘agro’, ‘farm’, ‘culture’,

‘community’, ‘rural tourism’, (Scheyvens, 2002; Weaver, 1991, cited in Aslam,

Awang, & Nor’ain, 2014). For example ‘ecotourism’, involves environmental and

ecological awareness that ensure the conservation and preservation. ‘Community

tourism’, takes place within the local community, who are socio-economically

empowered through tourism and ‘rural tourism’, is found in the countryside with

merger of rustic rural life and basic facilities. (Page et al., 2001, cited in Aslam,

Awang, & Nor’ain, 2014). Any form of tourism that showcases the rural life, art,

culture and heritage at rural locations, thereby benefiting the local community

economically and socially as well as enabling interaction between the tourists and

the locals for a more enriching tourism experience can be termed as rural tourism.

It is multi-faceted and may entail farm/agricultural tourism, cultural tourism,

nature tourism, adventure tourism, and eco-tourism.

According to Spanish Institute for Prospective Technological Studies, 2001,

Gartner, 1996, Aslanyurek, 1984, Lier and Taylor 1993, Lawton and Weaver,

2001, cited in Christou,2012, the forms of alternative tourism can be clearly

classified in the following main categories: “ i) Cultural and Historical tourism,

based on the unique identity of visited site, ii) Health Tourism, depending on the

resource and type of facility, iii) Conference-Congress Tourism, depending on the

type of activity , and the aim of the meeting, iv) Sports Tourism, based on both

The evolution of alternative forms of Tourism 45

excitement and the ability to perform the activity, v) Contact with Nature:

Ecotourism activities, based on preserved environment having natural riches and

vi) Entertainment Tourism, based on availability of wide range activities

depending on amusement”.

Elli Fragaki (2003) pointed out five categories: i) Conference and Exhibition

tourism, organising conferences and international exhibitions in areas that also

offer other facilities, ii) Sports tourism, in the sense that tourism can be combined

with sport events, training or individual sports, iii) tourism for Religious reasons,

including churches, monasteries, religious festivals etc., iv) Culture tourism that is

associated with visits to monuments or cultural events, v) Ecotourism, tourism

that combines local economic development, protection of the quality of the

environment and promotion of the natural advantages and the history of an area.

In the following parts for simplicity reasons which serve the aims of this study, the

categories of alternative forms of tourism that will be analyzed are: Ecotourism,

Cultural and Creative tourism. These forms are the basis for the evolution of many

types of alternative tourism. The cultural and creative tourism are of main interest

of this study, as recently the gradually transformation of cultural tourism to mass

tourism created the need for a shift from the cultural to creative tourism, in order

the negative effects which will be induced to the regions by the resurgence of

mass tourism, to be restrained.

2.1 Ecotourism

Ecotourism has become the fastest growing sector of tourism industry. Ecotourism

developed in 1970s and 1980s within the boom of the environmental movement

which was taking actions against the negative impact of mass tourism to

environment. The environmental movement recognized that nature is essential to

human well-being. Recently, this belief has been enhanced by science confirming

that biodiversity is necessary both for human well-being and survival. Gradually,

demand for nature-based experiences of an alternative nature, that mass tourism

didn’t provide, increased. Less developed countries found the optimal solution to

their problems in the face of nature-based tourism as they realized that offers a

means of earning foreign exchange without destroy their natural resources. Many

of these countries identified ecotourism as a useful tool that serves conservation

and development goals (Blamey, 2001).

Hector Ceballos-Lascurain is well known as the first who think up the term

“ecotourism’ to designate forms of ecological tourism. He pointed out ecotourism

as a form of travel in which the natural environment is in priority and this is the

starting point in understanding ecotourism as a specific form of alternative

tourism. This travel is to unspoilt natural environments and is predominantly for

experiencing the natural environment (Wearing & Neil, 2009). Ross and Wall

(1999), in their article on ecotourism, referred to the role of ecotourism as a

strategy in order to preserve natural areas while promote sustainable development

of the area. The relationship between ecotourism and sustainability, between

conservation and development is presented in figure 1.

46 Triarchi and Karamanis

Figure 1: Perspective of Ecotourism

Source: Ross, Wall, 1999 cited in Cheia, 2013

A broadly definition of ecotourism can be, that is nature-based tourism that does

not conclude in the negative environmental, economic and social impacts that are

associated with mass tourism. The definition of ecotourism as have been recently

revised by The International Ecotourism Society (TIES, 2015) is “responsible

travel to natural areas that conserves the environment, sustains the well-being of

the local people, and involves interpretation and education”. According to the

literature, ecotourism in the beginning followed three principles:

i. is non-consumptive and non-extractive in the use of resources for and by

tourists, minimizing impact to the environment and people,

ii. creates an ecological conscience,

iii. holds eco-centric values and ethics in relation to nature.

ECOTOURISM

Protection of

natural areas

Generation of

revenue

Environmental

education

Conservation:

biological

diversity and

natural resources

Stewardship

Development:

economic /

infrastructural

growth

Local control

SUSTAINABILITY

Local

development

The evolution of alternative forms of Tourism 47

According to TIES “Ecotourism is about uniting conservation, communities, and

sustainable travel. This means that those who implement, participate in and market

ecotourism activities should adopt the following ecotourism principles:

i. Minimize physical, social, behavioral, and psychological impacts.

ii. Build environmental and cultural awareness and respect.

iii. Provide positive experiences for both visitors and hosts.

iv. Provide direct financial benefits for conservation.

v. Generate financial benefits for both local people and private industry.

vi. Deliver memorable interpretative experiences to visitors that help raise

sensitivity to host countries' political, environmental, and social climates.

vii. Design, construct and operate low-impact facilities.

viii. Recognize the rights and spiritual beliefs of the Indigenous People in your

community and work in partnership with them to create empowerment”.

Ecotourism in recent years, encloses many tourist forms focused on natural

environment. Although these forms are closely related to ecotourism need to be

distinguished from it as ecotourism presents many dimensions. According to

Wearing & Neil, “there are number of levels which distinguish the relationship

between specific tourism activities and nature:

 Those activities (experiences) that are dependent on nature.

 Those activities (experiences) that are enhanced by nature.

 Those activities (experiences) for which the natural setting is incidental”.

Thus, ecotourism embraces “nature tourism”, “wilderness tourism”, “low impact

tourism’ and “sustainable tourism”.

2.2 Cultural and Creative Tourism

As an alternative form of tourism, cultural tourism debouched as a response to

mass tourism, implying the travel which aims at discovering and learning more

about monuments and places of historical and artistic interest. WTO (2004)

revealed that cultural tourism is one of the largest and fastest growing global

tourism markets. It has developed to become a signiﬁcant phenomenon in the

travel and tourism industry and an essential element of the tourism system (Ritzer,

1999; Urry, 2001 cited in Liu, 2014).

In the past, culture was not strongly related to tourism, which was considered as a

leisure activity. In Europe the majority of wealthy people was viewing holidays as

time for rest and relaxation and only small numbers of them used to engage in

cultural tours with specific educational goals. This situation changed during the

century, as tourists became more experienced and started seeking new

experiences on their vacation time and more regions began to recognize the value

of culture as a potential means of generating tourism (Richards, 2009). In

nowadays, tourism and culture are inseparable. According to OECD “Culture and

48 Triarchi and Karamanis

tourism have a mutually beneficial relationship which can strengthen the

attractiveness and competitiveness of regions and countries. Culture is

increasingly an important element of the tourism product, which also creates

distinctiveness in a crowded global marketplace. At the same time, tourism

provides an important means of enhancing culture and creating income which can

support and strengthen cultural heritage, cultural production and creativity”

(OECD, 2009).

The attempts of defining cultural tourism are rather problematic, as it consists of

two elements that their definition also are not clearly, “culture” and “tourism”.

Also, the growth of cultural tourism, which resulted from wider social and

economic trends dominated in “postmodernity” period, is a reason for a variety of

terms that have arisen both in literature and in policy statements. “Cultural

tourism, heritage tourism, arts tourism, ethnic tourism and a host of other terms

seem to be almost interchangeable in their usage, but it is rarely clear whether

people are talking about the same thing” (Richards, 2003). Bonink in 1992

concluded in two major approaches (Richards, 1996), The first is, the “sites and

monuments” approach, focuses on the type of attractions that cultural tourists

visit, referring to a product-based definition of culture. The cultural attractions of a

country or region are basically seen as the physical cultural sites which were

important for tourism. This approach is mainly used to a quantitative research on

cultural tourism, but its drawback is that restricts the analysis to specific sites, that

relates cultural tourism to the concept of “high tourism” and to the consumptions

of cultural products whereas it is important its involvement in cultural process to

be examined. These sites or attractions that are considered to be poles of

attractions of cultural tourists (according to ECTAR,1989, cited in Richards,1996)

are:

 archaeological sites and museums

 architecture (ruins, famous buildings, whole towns)

 art, sculpture, crafts, galleries, festivals, events

 music and dance (classical, folk, contemporary)

 drama (theatre, films, dramatists)

 language and literature study, tours, events

 religious festivals, pilgrimages

 complete (folk or primitive) cultures and sub-cultures.

Munsters in 1996, presents a similar approach in his attempt to classify a wide

range of cultural tourism attraction in the Netherland and Belgium (Richards,

2003):

I. ATTRACTIONS

a) Monuments

b) Museums

c) Routes

d) Theme parks

The evolution of alternative forms of Tourism 49

II. EVENTS

a) Cultural-historic events

b) Art events

c) Events and Attractions

The second approach is the conceptual approach, and is more clearly process-

based as it tries to describe the motive and meanings fasten to cultural tourism

activity. In this concept, cultural tourists learn about the products and process of

other cultures. Tourists increasingly visit destinations for experiencing lifestyles,

everyday culture and customs of the people they visit.

Thus, ATLAS’ Cultural Tourism Research Project in 1991 made an effort to

combine the two aforementioned approaches resulting to the fact that a product-

based definition was necessary for the measurement of cultural tourism, whereas a

process-based conceptual definition was also necessary for the description of

cultural tourism as an activity. ATLAS suggested two forms of definition: 1) Τhe

conceptual definition which is "the movement of persons to cultural attractions

away from their normal place of residence, with the intention to gather new

information and experiences to satisfy their cultural needs", and 2) The technical

definition: "All movements of persons to specific cultural attractions, such as

heritage sites, artistic and cultural manifestations, arts and drama outside their

normal place of residence". Their difference is that conceptual definition considers

the motivation of tourists as central (Richards, 1996). The conceptual definition

of ATLAS, is one of the most widespread deﬁnitions. The people moving towards

cultural attractions, somewhere other than their habitual place of residence in

order to obtain sufficient information and knowledge, fulfilling their own cultural

demands, are the cultural tourists. Some authors supports that not all cultural

tourists ‘consume’ culture, in the sense of satisfying their own cultural needs, in

the same way. Some tourists have a more superﬁcial, and even accidental, contact;

others a more profound one (Silberberg, 1995 cited in Jovicic,2014). As the level

of interest in cultural attractions and events differs among tourists, it is possible to

distinguish various categories of cultural tourists. McKercher and Du Cros in 2002

proposed a broad typology that has been rather accepted by the academics,

(Jovicic, 2014). Following this typology, the five types of cultural tourists are:

1. The highly motivated cultural tourist.

2. The sightseeing tourist (visiting only the main tourist attractions).

3. The casual cultural tourist (conventional interest in culture).

4. The incidental cultural tourist (culture contact/experience is rather superﬁcial

and not of main interest).

5. The accidental cultural tourist (although culture is not an interest, the contact/

experience with culture gains the tourists impression).

These five types of cultural tourists can be classified in two key groups: The first

group includes those tourist who main motivation is culture so they consume. The

50 Triarchi and Karamanis

second group, refers to tourist for whom culture is only a complement, secondary

or even accidental (Jovicic, 2014).

In recent years, the dynamic growth of cultural tourism can be explained by the

fast growth of demand for trips to various cultural attractions and amenities. A rise

in interest of tourists both to distant cultures and to the local heritage occurred

through the increase of educated people around the world and the globalization.

Moreover, technology supported this growth, especially the internet as a source of

information on cultural attractions and for giving the possibility to tourists to

create their own cultural tourism products. For example combining travel,

accommodation, and attractive contents into tailor-made packages, ignoring

specialist cultural tourism tour operators. Technology has influenced deeply

tourist consumption as cultural sites are now experienced individually through the

earpiece of an audio guide or the viewﬁnder of a camcorder (Jovicic, 2014). The

cultural tourist, from consumer is transforming to producer of the cultural products

and experiences. The cultural tourists now have acquired more knowledge about

the experiences they are consuming than the people who supply them, thus taking

the lead in experience production. The experiences in which they engage, they are

related to a shift from tangible to intangible tourism resources (see figure 2)

implying a transition from static attractions towards more interactive and

intangible experiences. These experiences are associated to local culture and not to

global one (Richards, 2009).

Figure 2: Shift from tangible to intangible tourism resources

Source: Richards, 2007

As culture tourist become more interactive and creative, the cultural tourism need

to be repositioned and to become more “creative”. Although, this new form of

tourism is difficult for the traditional tourism sector to deal with, it reveals great

opportunities in providing alternative sources of revenue for regions. Traditional

cultural tourism, in recent days, was more resembling to mass tourism than to

alternative one, as famous sites attracted large numbers of tourists, degrading the

Tangible Resources

•Built heritage

•Museums

•Monuments

•Beaches

•Mountains

Intagible Resources

•Image

•Identity

•Lifestyles

•Atmosphere

•Narratives

•Creativity

•Media

The evolution of alternative forms of Tourism 51

quality of experience and pushing 'serious' cultural tourists away. Moreover, many

places in order to develop a unique image followed similar strategies which

resulted in making them looking the same in the eyes of cultural tourists. Many

tourists are seeking now out “alternative” forms of tourism associated to

knowledge and based to skills, in “new areas” of the region, away from the

traditional cultural heritage. Today, tourists visit places both for their creative

atmosphere and the opportunity of doing creative activities themselves. The new

challenge for the regions globally is to detect ways of incorporating creativity and

making tourists to believe that they are in the unique place they desire for their

quality holidays. According to Richards (2012), the ways that creativity can be

used in tourism include: “tourism products and experiences, revitalization of

existing products, valorizing cultural and creative assets, providing economic

spin-offs for creative development, using creative techniques to enhance the

tourism experience, creating buzz and atmosphere”. Thus, through these ways

creativity could support the effort of the places to acquire their uniqueness and to

evolve their cultural tourism to a “creative” one (see figure 3).

Figure 3: From “cultural” to “creative tourism”

Source: OECD, 2014 ,p.53

According to UNESCΟ (2006), “Creative Tourism is considered to be a new

generation of tourism. The first generation was beach tourism, in which people

come to a place for relaxation and leisure; the second was cultural tourism,

oriented toward museums and cultural tours. Creative Tourism involves more

interaction, in which the visitor has an educational, emotional, social, and

participative interaction with the place, its living culture, and the people who live

there. They feel like a citizen. This third generation requires that managers also

evolve, recognizing the creativity within their city as a resource, and providing

new opportunities to meet the evolving interests of tourists”. Creative tourism

•ORIENTATION

•EXTERNALITIES

•STRUCTURE

•PROCESS

•VALUE CREATION

•VALUE FOCUS

•FUNDING

Cultural tourism

•Past

•Conservation

•Products

•Interpretation

•Value Chains

•Upstream

•Public

Creative tourism

•Future

•Innovation

•Platforms and content

•Co-creation

•Value networks

•Downstream

•Commercial

52 Triarchi and Karamanis

have a greater degree of commercial supply and participation whereas cultural

tourism is basically managed or funded by public sector.

Richards and Raymond (2000) defined the new concept of “creative tourism” as:

tourism which offers visitors the opportunity to develop their creative potential

through active participation in courses and learning experiences which are

characteristic of the holiday destination where they are undertaken, (Richards,

2009). Richards, considers “creative tourism as a type of holiday devoted to

learning a particular skill which belongs to a culture of the host country” giving

the example “of a growing number of courses in areas such as languages,

gastronomy, and art in recent years, driven not only by high demand for creative

skills, but also by a growing number of creative producers who have started to

service this market” (Richards, 2009).

In fact, “creative tourism” can be broadly defined as the cro-creation of creative

experiences with tourists (Richards, 2012). There are many ways that this co-

makership between guests and hosts can occurred, developing creative tourism

experiences (see table 2).

Table 2: Examples of creative tourism experiences

Experience

Delivery

Learning

Workshops

Tasting

Experiences, Open ateliers

Seeing

Itineraries

Buying

Shop Window

Source: Richards, 2012

According to Richards (2009) “these types of experiences can be delivered in a

variety of ways, including the creation of networks, itineraries, courses and

events” (see table 3). The development of value in the creative tourism system

leads to a shift towards wider value networks rather than restrictive value chains,

and the production of value follows a downstream distribution and application of

content rather than upstream content generation (OECD,2014).

The evolution of alternative forms of Tourism 53

Table 3: Examples of creative tourism networks, Creative Spaces, Events, Cultural

Itineraries, Creative backdrops

Creative

Tourism

Networks

i) Creative Tourism Network in the city of Nelson, New

Zealand provides a wide range of creative experiences with a

range of hands-on workshops being run by local tutors, such

as bone carving, Maori language classes, weaving, felting

and woodwork and New Zealand gastronomy.

ii) The Creative Tourism Network in Barcelona follows a more

artistic approach, providing a platform through which

potential creative tourists can indicate the types of creative

activities they are interested in, and they are then put in

touch with local creative sector actors who can provide the

facilities or resources to make it happen.

Creative

Spaces

Referring to spaces that offer learning experiences to visitors in

different parts of world.

i) In Italy, the Italian coffee producer illy’s Università del

Caffè provides courses on all aspects of coffee and coffee

making at 11 different locations. Since 1999, almost 22,000

students have graduated from this institution.

ii) In France, the Valrhona chocolate company provides similar

courses for gourmets and professionals in their L’Ecole du

Grand Chocolat in Southern France.

iii) In Barcelona different forms of accommodation have been

engaged into the creative sector to develop new experiences.

a. The Chic and Basic hotel has staged fashion shows,

using it’s individually designed bedrooms to showcase

the products of young local designers.

b. The Equity Point hostels group runs a ‘hostelArt’

programme, giving young artists an opportunity to show

off their work in hostel rooms and introducing young

travellers to the creative sector in Barcelona.

c. The Camping House Barcelona provides to guests the

sensation of camping in the middle of the city, and

adding design value to their stay.

Events

Strategy to develop creative tourism including new types of events

not focusing on passive audience attendance, but to the active

involvement of creative producers and others in the “co-creation” of

events.

i) Umea, a city located in Sweden, was voted as The European

Capital of Culture in 2014. The city’s principles took the

decision instead of the programme being designed by

'experts' in the cultural sector the event is being planned and

programmed with direct involvement of local people, like

54 Triarchi and Karamanis

the local school children creating a blog which was used as

the basic script for an opera performance to which they were

later invited. The audience is not there simply to consume

but to participate actively in producing the experience.

ii) The Festes de Gràcia is a local festival in a district of

Barcelona. The major element of it, is the decoration of local

streets by inhabitants, using recycled materials. Each street is

themed, and there a high level of creativity involved in

creating a totally new space from discarded items such as

water bottles and milk cartons.

Cultural

Itineraries

A means of linking together creative enterprises and events, and

making visitors engaging in different activities in a certain place.

i) The Craft Route of the Alto Minho in Northern Portugal

includes a large number of crafts producers working from

home. The visitors, according to brochure and website, can

visit these producers although in reality this is infeasible,

especially for non-portuguese speakers as the contact with

them is occuring only through a telephone line. Therefore,

the tourist board decide to sell craft products in its

information centers. Sales are supported by demonstrations

from crafts producers during the high season. This strategy

increases the craft sales making the producers satisfied.

ii) The Council of Europe develops a new approach to cultural

itinerary concept, named a ‘Cultural Corridor’ scheme. Its

definition is: Networks of interaction and economic

exchange based on culture and creativity, incorporating

principles of sustainability, fairness and inclusion, based on

wide stakeholder partnerships which are rooted in solid

institutional frameworks that stimulate regional socio-

economic development. The key element is the creation of

networks, moving beyond physical routes linking cultural

sites in order to include the full range of creative assets in a

region. Culture Corridor scheme focuses in South East

Europe.

Creative

backdrops

Many cities have a reputation of being ‘creative’, just as Santa Fe in

New Mexico, does. This creativity is experienced by the visitor not

so much in the direct consumption of creative activities, but rather

through the general atmosphere of the place, which is generated by

the creative sector. This strategy is currently being employed in

Shanghai and Beijing, as newly developing creative clusters are

opened up and marketed to tourists.

Adjusted from Richards, G., 2009 (Tourism development trajectories-From culture to

creativity).

The evolution of alternative forms of Tourism 55

Concluding, regions must stop give their full attention to their tangible assets in

order to attract tourists and must shift their policy to the development and

valorizing of intangible factors, such as planning, knowledge development and

networking, which are necessary to support the cultural or creative tourism

system. They must focus on the different elements of the creative system, like the

spaces and events that support the networks required to embed creativity and make

links to creative consumers and producers outside the destination (Richards,

2012). Creative tourism needs careful design, according to the principles of

visibility, permeability and flexibility (see table 4).

Table 4: Basic elements of Creativity

Visibility

Small-scale producers must make their production visible.

The main actors in creative sector need to extend their

economic capital by developing new skills in cross-sectoral

operation and applying their creative capital to new

ventures.

Permeability

This element is found more often in smaller cities in which

the creative class is easier to be tracked and be approached.

The easier a creative environment can be pinpointed, the

more attractive is the city for the contemporary tourist.

Flexibility

As creative tourism implies co-makership between visitors

and locals, that means they both have to be flexible in their

approach to each other and to the subject of creativity

Adjusted from Richards,G., 2012 ( Tourism, Creativity and Creative Industries).

If places are careless on their design will not be able to incorporate creativity, to

attract creative industries and to lay the foundations for the sustainable

development of “creative” tourism.

The OECD always emphasizes the significant contribution the creative industries

(CIs) can make to economic growth and the need to link CIs to tourism. The CIs

can drive tourism growth by providing creative tourism experiences, supporting

innovative approaches to tourism development and marketing and recreating the

image of destinations (OECD, 2014).

3 Current trends

According to OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2014: “Customer demand for

sustainable and eco-friendly tourism products expected to grow but eco-tourism as

a significant stand-alone niche sector has been slow to develop”.

56 Triarchi and Karamanis

Visitors are demanding more individual and authentic experiences and depending

more on technology to plan their holidays. The Internet will continue to influence

the creative dimension of tourism. The implications of Web 3.0 or mobile Internet

are significant for tourism, as tourists use their smartphones or tablets to make

bookings, accounting for 54% of bookings, whereas the travel agencies have

fallen to 24%. More widespread access to internet globally has displaced the

providers of tourism services to consumers and facilitated the self-guided and

independent trips, even in more remote tourist destinations. The creative

innovations in tourism will require the repositioning of the travel system, shifting

from a traditional value chain towards a “value web” that includes travel suppliers,

consumers, residents, other non-travel actors in a process of travel experience co-

creation. The dominance of internet and new media influence the contact between

visitors and locals which is now more direct, creating the new phenomenon of

“relational” tourism. Tourists will enjoy the experience of “live like a local”. This

latter trend creates new tourist spaces in many cities and rural regions. The

creative industries support the evolution of all these trends (OECD, Tourism and

the Creative Economy, OECD studies on Tourism, 2014).

4 Concluding Remarks

Between the 1970s and early 1980s alternative forms of tourism, emerged in

developing countries as an alternative solution to the “undesired” type of tourism

“the mass tourism” or “the conventional/commercial tourism” or “the traditional

tourism”. These forms of tourism appearing in different names and various

models, served a more sensitive approach giving priority to natural and cultural

resources at the front line of planning and development. To give an accurate

definition and furthermore a precise classification of the Alternative forms of

tourism is impossible as there are many different opinions about these, from

academics. They converge only to one point and this is their opposition towards

package or mass tourism.

In the concept of alternative tourism, one of its form, ecotourism developed in

1970s and 1980s within the boom of the environmental movement which was

taking actions against the negative impact of mass tourism to environment. The

environmental movement recognized that nature is essential to human well-being.

Recently, this belief has been enhanced by science confirming that biodiversity is

necessary both for human well-being and survival. Ecotourism, encloses many

tourist forms focused on natural environment. Although these forms are closely

related to ecotourism need to be distinguished from it as ecotourism presents many

dimensions. According to Wearing & Neil, “there are number of levels which

distinguish the relationship between specific tourism activities and nature such as

those activities (experiences) that are dependent on nature, those that are enhanced

by nature and those for which the natural setting is incidental. Thus, ecotourism

The evolution of alternative forms of Tourism 57

embraces “nature tourism”, “wilderness tourism”, “low impact tourism’ and

“sustainable tourism”.

Referring to cultural tourism, this form of alternative tourism became one of the

largest and fastest growing global tourism markets. In recent years, the dynamic

growth of cultural tourism can be explained by the fast growth of demand for trips

to various cultural attractions and amenities. The increase of educated people

globally, the evolution of technology especially of internet, giving the chance to

tourists to create their own cultural tourism products supported the aforementioned

growth. Technology has influenced deeply tourist consumption as cultural sites

are now experienced individually through the earpiece of an audio guide or the

viewﬁnder of a camcorder (Jovicic, 2014). As culture tourist become more

interactive and creative, the cultural tourism need to be repositioned and to

become also more “creative”.

According to UNESCΟ (2006), “Creative Tourism is considered to be a new

generation of tourism…. Creative Tourism involves more interaction, in which the

visitor has an educational, emotional, social, and participative interaction with the

place, its living culture, and the people who live there. They feel like a citizen.

This third generation requires that managers also evolve, recognizing the

creativity within their city as a resource, and providing new opportunities to meet

the evolving interests of tourists”. The new challenge for the regions globally is to

detect ways of incorporating creativity and making tourists to believe that they are

in the unique place they desire for their quality holidays.

Today, tourists visit places both for their creative atmosphere and the opportunity

of doing creative activities themselves. In fact, “creative tourism” can be broadly

defined as the cro-creation of creative experiences with tourists (Richards, 2012).

“These types of experiences can be delivered in a variety of ways, including the

creation of networks, itineraries, courses and events”. Creative tourism needs

careful design, according to the principles of visibility, permeability and

flexibility. If places are careless on their design will not be able to incorporate

creativity, to attract creative industries and to lay the foundations for the

sustainable development of “creative” tourism.

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