Hope, frustrations and progressive potentials: a mild polemic

The complexities of the creative sector are well rehearsed both within and beyond tourism. In tourism, creativity manifests in a range of ways and tends to be regarded as something that the commercial sector indulges, through film and apps to enable virtual visiting. Customers, tourists, have their ideas – and to a degree feeling of experiences, sites, staged events, framed, even shaped, by the touristic creative sector. These interventions play a valuable role to get closer to the in vivo experience. This commentary reflects upon the range of work that has been undertaken in the last twenty years to explore creativity in tourism as the creativity of tourists and how this constitutes their expectations and experiences remains central to tourist studies.