When an email from Tripadvisor popped into our inbox headed “Psst… Our Trendcast knows where you should go next” that rang a bell. A while ago, Wendy Morrill and I wrote a blog piece on  “the intention economy”, which outlined how consumer desires and motivations as the drivers of tourism demand. The growth of AI, and algorithms able to predict our wants, the ‘intention economy’ means that companies can know what we want and where we might travel, before we do. Creative touri

Just in time for Carnival 2026, our latest article about "Experiencing Carnival in Brazil: participation, motivations and outcomes" analyses the experience of Carnival Goers in Brazil in the post-Covid era. This is the fruit of a longitudinal research project on Carnival supported by ATLAS , and initiated by Lenia Marques over a decade ago. Over the last three years we surveyed over 1500 Carnival participants to find out how they experienced Carnival and and how this varied b

It was a great pleasure to attend the Citymakers’ Day organised by Breda Marketing recently. This brought together around 140 participants from the public and private sector, from voluntary and cultural organisations and other actors involved in culture, placemaking and events. My presentation dealt with the contribution of events to the city, and the ways in which the city can support events. All too often events are seen purely as a means of attracting visitors and generat

The accommodation sector in the Netherlands is trying to come to terms with the effects of an increase in Value Added Tax (BTW) from 9% to 21%.  The impact of this change is even sharper because neighbouring Germany (7%) and Belgium (6%) have kept their tax rates for hotels at a low level. Estimates of the impact of the tax increase  suggest an increase in hotel prices of over 8%, leading to decreased demand, and an 8% drop in turnover for hotels. There are already early sign

More than a year ago we charted the rise of immersive exhibitions around the world, noting that: It is almost impossible these days to visit a major city without seeing at least one immersive exhibition by Dali, Van Gogh or Picasso. The Van Gogh Immersive Experience in Shoreditch, London, features two-storey projections of his greatest works with  ‘ethereal soundscapes’ to accompany your journey. It seems that the growth in immersive exhibitions is now beginning to have an

A new article published in The Conversation  analyses the demand for creative tourism in South Africa. Gijsbert Hoogendoorn, Anneli Douglas and Greg Richards report that Millennials (born between 1981 and 1996) are increasingly taking part in creative skill building experiences such as cooking classes in traditional African cuisine in townships like Soweto and Langa, or painting workshops in small towns like Villiersdorp in the Western Cape. Street creativity in Johannesburg

December 11 th  marks 40 years since the launch of the campaign ‘Barcelona, posa’t guapa’ (Barcelona, make yourself beautiful). This urban renovation programme coincided with the preparations for the 1992 Olympic Games, the event that propelled the city onto the world stage. At that point, the writer Manuel Vázquez Montalbán recalled that the city was like “a sunken Titanic”.  (in Ferrer Viana, 2001: 16)17. The Barcelona, posa’t guapa  campaign had two main elements: renovat

Wendy Morrill and I recently wrote a piece for the Good Tourism Blog, charting the possible effects of the 'intention economy' - the idea that AI will soon know what you want before you do. This is significant because of the growing range of experiences we have to choose from. Algorithmic curation is already being applied in many fields: for example, 70% of the videos watched on YouTube are now selected for us by algorithms. Some of the implications of the growing curation t

A recent report  by Growth Market Reports indicates that the ‘creative tourism’ market was worth almost $90 billion in 2024, and is projected to grow at over 8% a year from 2025 to 2033. This would make creative tourism worth a whopping $176 billion by the end of 2033. Just a minute….isn’t creative tourism a niche market? Actively engaging with arts and crafts on holiday is a growing trend Yes, indeed, but it depends how you define it, and how you measure it. The Growth Marke

Carnival has begun! – at least in the Netherlands and Germany, where November 11th marks the start of the Carnival season. At 11 minutes past 11, to be precise. There are various explanations of origins of this apparently strange timing, including the co-incidence with the timing of the end of the First World War. But the most logical explanation seems to be that 11 is the ‘fool’s number’, stuck between the more usual 10 and 12. Carnival season 2026 is open! Whatever the expl

A new twist on the local-tourist debate in Amsterdam is marked by this ironic sticker appearing in the city centre. Tensions around the growing number of ex-pats in the city have been rising as housing shortages have sharpened and populist anti-migrant sentiment has grown. Amsterdam is particularly popular as an ex-pat destination because of the widespread use of English, the open and tolerant nature of the city and the varied cultural scene. Officially, the city is still ope

One of the common strategies to deal with the challenges of touristification in destinations such as Barcelona has been to push for ‘quality tourism’. The idea is that fewer tourists can generate just as much economic benefit, as long as they spend more. Alongside attracting tourists who stay longer and spend more, Barcelona’s strategy now aims to spread tourism throughout Catalunya, easing pressure on the city itself. Quality tourism? Recent figures indicate that tourist arr

There was a time when just going to the Alpujarras, with their picturesque white villages nestling in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada in Andalusia, was enough for a fulfilling holiday. Those days are long gone, as travellers increasingly seek meaning and fulfilment from their holidays. A writer from the Guardian discovered as much when invited to sample a ‘wild clay ceramics retreat’ at Las Mecías , a “regenerative farm & experiential guesthouse in the Alpujarras”. If this

A recent exhibition in Amsterdam highlighted the disappearance of the rough edges of the city in the face of continuing development. These ‘free spaces’ have offered havens for creativity, alternative lifestyles and sustainability programmes. Many of these locations around the fringes of Amsterdam have operated as cultural incubators, allowing artists to thrive and providing a base for experimental events and happenings. As we pointed out in a recent study of event space in A

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