Prelims

Half Title Page

The Creative Tourist

Series Page

THE TOURIST EXPERIENCE

Series Editor: Richard Sharpley

The Tourist Experience series addresses a notable gap in the literature on Tourism Studies by foregrounding the tourist experience in a cohesive and thematically structured manner.

Taking a novel approach by presenting both short form publications and longer form monographs exploring issues in the tourist experience, the series will seek to build a comprehensive set of texts that collectively contribute to critical discourse and understanding of the contemporary tourist experience. Short form publications will review specific types of tourist by focusing primarily on the influences and nature and significance of their experiences within a socio-cultural framework while longer titles will embrace contemporary empirical and conceptual perspectives and debates as a means of understanding experiences.

Recent Volumes:

• Un-ravelling Travelling: Emotional Connections and Autoethnography in Travel Research

  Sue Beeton

• The Adventure Tourist: Being, Knowing, Becoming

  Jelena Farkic and Maria Gebbels

• The Backpacker Tourist: A Contemporary Perspective

  Márcio Ribeiro Martins and Rui Augusto da Costa

• The Mindful Tourist: The Power of Presence in Tourism

  Uglješa Stankov, Ulrike Gretzel and Viachaslau Filimonau

• The Youth Tourist: Motives, Experiences and Travel Behaviour

  Anna Irimiás

Forthcoming Volumes:

• The Business Tourist

  Bernd Eisenstein, Julian Reif, and Manon Krüger

• The Access Tourist: Understanding (Dis)embodied Experiences

  Brielle Gillovic, Alison McIntosh and Simon Darcy

• The Responsible Tourist: Conceptualizations, Expectations and Dilemmas

  Dirk Reiser and Volker Rundshagen

• The Sport Tourist

  Sean James Gammon

Title Page

The Creative Tourist: A Eudaimonic Perspective

BY

XAVIER MATTEUCCI

Independent Scholar, Austria

AND

MELANIE KAY SMITH

Budapest Metropolitan University, Hungary

United Kingdom – North America – Japan – India – Malaysia – China

Copyright Page

Emerald Publishing Limited

Emerald Publishing, Floor 5, Northspring, 21-23 Wellington Street, Leeds LS1 4DL.

First edition 2024

Copyright © 2024 Xavier Matteucci and Melanie Kay Smith.

Published under exclusive licence by Emerald Publishing Limited.

Reprints and permissions service

Contact: www.copyright.com

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without either the prior written permission of the publisher or a licence permitting restricted copying issued in the UK by The Copyright Licensing Agency and in the USA by The Copyright Clearance Center. Any opinions expressed in the chapters are those of the authors. Whilst Emerald makes every effort to ensure the quality and accuracy of its content, Emerald makes no representation implied or otherwise, as to the chapters’ suitability and application and disclaims any warranties, express or implied, to their use.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-83753-405-0 (Print)

ISBN: 978-1-83753-404-3 (Online)

ISBN: 978-1-83753-406-7 (Epub)

Contents

List of Figures and Tables

Figure

Tables

About the Authors

Dr Xavier Matteucci is an Independent Scholar currently employed at FHWien der WKW / University of Applied Sciences for Management and Communication. He was appointed Honorary Professor at IMC Krems University of Applied Sciences, Austria in 2023. He grew up in the Provence region where, over the years, he has witnessed the erosion of the regional culture and the marketisation and privatisation of public spaces and services. He became interested in the influence of tourism/travel on individual and collective well-being as well as in the effects of globalisation processes on regional cultures and cultural identities. During his frequent travel to Spain, he became passionate about flamenco as an art form, which led to his doctoral research on creative flamenco experiences. Xavier adheres to constructivist epistemology, but he also finds inspiration in new materialist philosophies for understanding social phenomena and fostering positive change. His publications cover topics in the areas of tourism experiences and well-being, cultural tourism and qualitative social research methodologies. Apart from his academic activities, he has led European Commission funded consultancy research projects on sustainable cultural tourism in South-East Europe.

Dr Melanie Kay Smith is an Associate Professor and Researcher in Urban Studies, Cultural Heritage, Well-being and Tourism. She currently works at Budapest Metropolitan University in Hungary and the University of Tartu Pärnu College in Estonia and is a PhD Supervisor at Corvinus University Budapest. She is also a Research Associate at the Department of Historical and Heritage Studies, Faculty of Humanities, University of Pretoria, South Africa. She has been an Academic and Researcher for over 20 years with lecturing and degree programme management experience in the UK, Hungary, Estonia, Austria, Germany and Switzerland. She has a PhD in Culture-led Urban Regeneration and Planning and over 100 publications including several books, book chapters and academic articles. She has been an invited Keynote Speaker at Conferences in more than 20 countries. She was Chair of ATLAS (Association for Tourism and Leisure Education and Research) for seven years (2005–2012) and has been an Expert Advisor or Consultant on projects in several countries, including UNWTO/ETC (2016–2018).

Acknowledgements

Many individuals have inspired us over the years. It is often difficult to name just a few because this book is the product of many years of reading exciting and provocative books and articles and of many encounters and discussions with inspiring friends, colleagues and other people we have met along the way. A large source of inspiration also comes from some creative tourists themselves for finding the strength to leave their comfort zone ansd venture into the world. In particular, XM is indebted to the creative flamenco tourists who enthusiastically embraced his scholarly endeavour and graciously shared their experiences. Some of their experiences are presented in this book. XM is also grateful to Ivana Volić for her generous support and patience throughout. Un grand MERCI à Albert, Lola, Léo et Lino. MS would like to thank Greg Richards for his inspiration over the years in the fields of both cultural and creative tourism. She is also grateful for the many wonderful shared cultural experiences and creative moments with her husband and sons, especially Levi, who is training to be a dancer. Lastly, we would like to thank Professor Richard Sharpley, as the book series editor and Nick Wallwork, senior commissioning editor at Emerald for their forbearance with this project.