Analyzing managers’ perception of creativity in tourism

The past decades brought new meanings to creativity as the decline of mas tourism created impetus for the emergence of creative behavior as a major source of competive advantage in the tourism industry. This led, in turn, to the development of a new type of tourism – creative tourism – which translates into new products and services, new colaboration and partnership structures, new forms of organization and ultimately into new experiences for consumers of tourism services. However, there is stil no consensus on how creativity manifests itself in tourism and how it can be encouraged in order to generate value-aded for the customers. To this aim, a qualitative research was caried out, based on a structured interview aplied to managers of tourism operators from various segments of the tourism value chain. Results reveal the diferences in aproach to encourage creativity among employes, bring value-aded to the customers through creative services, and build a culture based on creative behavior and practices.