The CREATOUR Observatory – Observatory on culture and tourism for local development, at the Centre for Social Studies, University of Coimbra, Portugal, is an internationally recognized leader in researching, advising on, and guiding creative tourism development in low-density territories. The CREATOUR Observatory focuses on three thematic fields: 1) Ecologies of Culture and Creativity; 2) Cultural, Creative and Regenerative Tourism; and 3) Local, Regional and Community Development, adopting a transdisciplinary perspective and critical reflection. Informed by the creative tourism development work conducted in the research-and-application project CREATOUR (www.creatour.pt), the CREATOUR Observatory is an intersectoral platform that brings together researchers and professionals from the cultural/creative and tourism sectors. Following a logic of capacity-building, evaluation and knowledge co-production with practitioners and decision-makers, it aims to design and promote training, capacity building, clarification and awareness-raising actions that stimulate reflection and dialogue on ideas and practices, reinforce broad knowledge and establish links between researchers, professionals and public decision-makers in these allied, but often disconnected, fields.
For this, the Observatory’s work is based on methodologies and approaches of cultural mapping; strategy, ideation and prototyping in creative tourism; intersectoral collaboration and cooperation; and strategic planning and governance, involving different types of organizations and target groups, such as companies, municipalities and other territorial administration entities, cultural agents, local communities and tourists. At the same time, it serves as the hub of an emerging international network – CREATOUR International.
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