**2.2. Creative tourism**

Creative tourism has developed from cultural tourism as the needs and wishes of people to discover something new changed.

Creative tourism is a new form of tourism that includes very high potential to change existing models of tourism and contribute to the appearance of new experiences. Creative tourism may help to encourage social and cultural development and the rise of local economy. This type of tourism includes not only incoming tourists into the life of a country, but also its society which creates and helps to preserve traditions and old values.

With regard to these factors that have determined the rise of creative tourism, a high degree of influence was created by the existence of the consumerist culture. People were forced to think about what was there and then, and that it had to be preserved. The appearance of creative tourism was mostly influenced by the altering thinking and a larger portion of free time, which influenced the human wish to discover something other than what had been discovered by mass tourists.

**Table 2** introduces definitions of cultural tourism. The first definition of creative tourism was created in 2006 by UNESCO during the first international conference on creative tourism held in October 2006 in Santa Fe (USA).


**Table 2.** Definitions of creative tourism. Source: created by the author.

The main idea of the concepts includes the tourist's participation in activities and acquisition of authentic experience, which is the main aim of creative tourism. It can also be said that this form of tourism aims at not only a tourist's participation, but also the participation of a local community. In cultural tourism, community plays a marginal role as only the most beautiful cultural routes and most popular locations are shown; in the case of creative tourism, it also encourages to leave mass tourism behind and aims at observing old traditions and authentic culture rather than what has already been discovered or is new.

Catriona Campbell, a creative tourism marketing specialist, also identifies this type of tourism with various activities and participation in them. It aims at introducing tourists with specific foreign types of arts, various authentic crafts and traditional food. Every tourist would be able to choose the most interesting activity. Even though people's desires and goals would differ, in any case, they would have to communicate with local communities and learn from them [12]. Campbell emphasises that tourists would be provided with an opportunity to live in high quality residential locations. This statement can be interpreted as follows: tourists would be accommodated together with a community that organises various seminars and practice, which would create immediate communication and mutual cooperation. Living with the locals allows getting to know local culture fully, learning various crafts or just feeling like one is a part of the society [12].

Crispin Raymond [13] is one of the founders of creative tourism in New Zealand. He states that this type of tourism has existed since the beginning of tourism and that it has only acquired an individual title.

One of the most important features of creative tourism is informal communication. In order for the guests to become a part of the society, it is necessary to provide them with an oppor‐ tunity to communicate in informal environment and create conditions that we live in. This would allow tourists to empathise and not be afraid of observing deeper traditions. Crispin Raymond distinguishes informal participation as the most important aspect, which other authors do not emphasise [13]. The aim is to make tourists feel at home and become closer to the community through various seminars and experiences. In Lithuania, an exceptional example of creative tourism that has become a well-known event of international inbound tourism is the mushroom festival entitled "Grybų karas Varėnoje" (*En.* "Mushroom War in Varėna"). It takes place annually on the last Saturday of September. The festival includes entertainment and many activities for different segments of tourists.

Moreover, the concept of creative tourism is inseparable from the concept of creative city because cities that invite such tourists organise various seminars, teach them how to apply theoretical knowledge practically and allow them integrating into the local culture and are called creative cities.
