Abstract
Within the framework of the “Tourfly” project, in which cultural and creative industries are central research areas, the authors investigated the relationship of artists with the city of Lisbon by analyzing six emblematic cases where artists are core in the emergence of creative tourism in the city, in terms of both domestic and international tourism. Between the gentrification problem and the social recovery of human communities, the presence of simulacra in tourist offer as opposing to authenticity experiences, the data from six focus group is presented, discussed, and theorized along this current chapter bringing a contribution for the understanding of artists' role in the design of both innovative and social sustainable tourist practices.
TopBackground
In the context of late modernity tourism industry takes the form of a universal commodification by extending the production of goods to the production of experiences (Crang, 1996; Joaquim, 2015; O´ Connor & Kim, 2014; Uriely, 2005; Van Es & Reijinders, 2016; Wang, 2000). Thus, the contemporary tourist experience is marked by differentiation processes, diversification, de-differentiation, subjectivity and plurality, covering wide range practices at both intra and interpersonal level (Dann, 1999; Galani-Moutafi, 2000; Joaquim, 2015; Urry, 1990; Larsen, Urry & Axhausen, 2007).
The de-differentiation turn in tourism proposed by Uriely (2005) operates on the blurring of boundaries between tourism and leisure as well, allowing local people to share many so-called tourist practices with visitors. Today territories are facing the need to articulate a growing tourist demand with the maintenance of an identity status. The strengthening of such growth in tourism development is expected to go in line with good standards of quality of life and welfare for local citizens, an essential condition for the sustainability of tourism itself.
Bearing this context in mind, creative tourism and creative cities are currently assumed as one of the central strategies within the tourist industry (Richards, 2014). The role of artists is therefore often interpreted as a central element of creative and cultural industries. Creative tourism and the focus on creative cities refers to a theoretical design questioning this reality from the continuous nature of the creative places, which provide experiences ranging from mere commodification to potentiation of social and economic networks that shape identities and alter the perception of the self, the other and the city (Thiel, 2017).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Gentrification: A process of urban transformation by means of social replacement of original (and poorer) inhabitants for new incomers (frequently richer).
Authenticities: Manners of exploring the tourist experience comprising of objective, enacted, and existential factors.
Creative Cities: Formal construct of city promotion by adopting public creative policies that tend to high visibility dynamics.
Relational Art: An artistic approach dominant at contemporary art networks that uses direct encounters between author/performer and audience. Events may take place at formal theater spaces, outdoors, art galleries, or at non-conventional community spaces.
Lisbon Metropolitan Area (LMA): Metropolitan area around the Portuguese capital that comprises of 18 counties of distinctive natural landscape, tourism offer and social fabric.
Tourfly: Title of the official 18-month project “Innovation and Future: contributions to the design of the tourist offer in Lisbon Metropolitan area, Supported by the Foundation for Science and Technology/FCT (Lisbon-01-0145-Feder-023368) and concluded on May 2019.
Globalization: A process of planetary change that involves technology, international commerce and a political and social restructuring that affects intimacy and one’s sense of self.
Creative Tourism: A typology in which creativity, either by the form of personal involvement or reception of an art work, is the catalyst.
Tourism and Leisure: Business related (and not related) activities that form various typologies in tourism offer, and whose practice should bear standards of social, economic, and ecological sustainability.