Creative Tourism: An Umbrella for Agrifood Travel Experiences?

Creativity is becoming more relevant to increasing destinations’ distinctiveness. While anecdotal evidence suggests that travel to experience any aspect of the agrifood process encompasses key indicators of Creative Tourism (CT), the alignment of agrifood experiences with CT remains unexplored, limiting destinations’ potential to leverage the growing demand for both creative and agrifood experiences. Thus, we assessed the importance of CT indicators across three types of agrifood experiences (agritourism, craft beverages, food) in contrast with beach-going (control) while traveling using hypothetical scenarios. We collected data in 2023 from a non-random panel of 1019 residents across the USA (250 pre-established quotes per travel scenario) using an electronic survey. Results showed that those in the agrifood travel scenarios, notably in agritourism, perceived higher levels of creativity as compared to those in the control group across all creative domains, which supports CT as a suitable scholarly framework to position agrifood travel experiences. Results also indicate that destinations having strong agrifood experiences—and notably agritourism—should build upon their shared creative elements, mainly gravitating around experiencing local livelihoods, to increase their competitiveness. This study’s results can inform destinations seeking to strengthen their distinctiveness by catering to the increasing number of tourists seeking creative food, agricultural, and beverage experiences.