Visitors and Residents in El Raval Neighborhood of Barcelona. New Opportunities for Creative Tourism?

Abstract

This article analyzes the relationship between creative tourism and intercultural interaction. The research took place in Barcelona, a city that has become, during the last three decades (1990-2020), a renowned international urban destination. El Raval, a central and multicultural neighbourhood, is the most serious example of a neighbourhood in the city that has experienced rapid tourism growth and pressure. Given the city’s wholesale adoption of the co-creation of place, some of the criteria of creative tourism experiences have been used to determine a baseline of engagement attitudes and behaviours of residents and visitors in El Raval neighbourhood. A special emphasis has been given to the role of social media, and how it might affect the relationship between residents and visitors from a creative tourism point of view. The authors created a specific survey which was distributed online to residents and visitors. The results of this study show different perceptions between residents and visitors. On one hand, residents are less willing to engage in the creative tourism enterprise than are visitors. On the other hand, residents underestimate the interest of visitors in connecting with them, while visitors overestimate the interest of residents in connecting with them, suggesting that communication is something that can be improved. Those results make evident the need to use and develop social media tools to connect residents and visitors, and promote cross-cultural interactions and creative tourism.