Analyzing Pilot Projects of Creative Tourism in an Ultra-Peripheral Region: Which Guidelines Can Be Extracted for Sustainable Regional Development?

Carlos Santos, Gualter Couto, Isabel Soares de Albergaria, Leonor Sampaio da Silva, Pilar Damião Medeiros, Rosa Maria Neves Simas and Rui Alexandre Castanho ()
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Carlos Santos: Azores Sustainable Tourism Observatory (OTA), Centre of Applied Economics Studies of the Atlantic (CEEAplA), University of the Azores, 9500-321 Ponta Delgada, Portugal
Gualter Couto: School of Business and Economics and CEEAplA, University of Azores, 9500-321 Ponta Delgada, Portugal
Isabel Soares de Albergaria: Centre for the Humanities (CHAM), University of the Azores, 9500-321 Ponta Delgada, Portugal
Leonor Sampaio da Silva: Centre for the Humanities (CHAM), University of the Azores, 9500-321 Ponta Delgada, Portugal
Pilar Damião Medeiros: Interdisciplinary Centre of Social Sciences, University of the Azores (CICS.UAc/CICS.NOVA.UAc), 9500-321 Ponta Delgada, Portugal
Rosa Maria Neves Simas: Interdisciplinary Centre of Social Sciences, University of the Azores (CICS.UAc/CICS.NOVA.UAc), 9500-321 Ponta Delgada, Portugal
Rui Alexandre Castanho: Faculty of Applied Sciences, WSB University, 41-300 Dąbrowa Górnicza, Poland

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 19, 1-23

Abstract: Several authors have shown that some tourism typologies—i.e., rural tourism, nature-based tourism, or creative tourism—have a more predominant role in attaining regional sustainability. In this regard, this paper explores the impacts of five pilot projects of creative tourism on the sustainable development of the insular Autonomous Region of the Azores. Through direct exploratory tools, such as interviews and site analyses, the present study enabled us to provide greater insight into creative tourism projects and their relevance to the development of an ultra-peripheral island region. As part of the CREATOUR AZORES Project, this study is based on five creative tourism pilot projects operating in the Azores, Portugal. As such, it is recommended that the regional government, local authorities, and other relevant actors and players in this region actively support and create strategies to strengthen these projects (and similar initiatives) once they not only contribute to regional development and destination promotion but also promote much-desired sustainable development—once these kinds of tourism, in theory, and practice, counteract the dire effects of mass tourism.

Keywords: Azores Islands; creative tourism; regional development; regional strategies; sustainable tourism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
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