Interview: Creative Tourism with Elena

On our recent trip to Innsbruck I had the pleasure of meeting Elena Paschinger of Kreativ Reisen Österreich (Creative Tourism Austria). As an artist and avid traveler, i was excited to learn more about creative tourism. I thought several of my readers would, too, so I asked Elena to answer some questions for us.

This International Life: First things first: what is “creative tourism” and how did you become involved with it?

Elena Paschinger: Creative tourism is a new term for something that has been around for a long time. It is about learning from locals about unique aspects of their culture through hands-on engagement , e.g. a cooking class in Chile, a dot painting workshop in Australia, or a Maori haka dance in New Zealand. You learn about the culture of the destination you visit through active involvement, thereby becoming part of everyday culture and learning to “live like a local.”

I started to become involved with creative tourism back at university through my cultural tourism studies, followed by one and a half years spent in New Zealand supporting Creative Tourism New Zealand. Denise and Crispin Raymond coined the term “Creative Tourism” together with Greg Richards in 2001 and set up the first creative tourism marketing organisation in New Zealand in 2003. It was wonderful to live there and experience New Zealand creatively – I contributed and learned so much at the same time! Ever since I have been passionate about the subject.

TIL: What are some of the creative things one can do in Austria?

EP: Austria boasts a broad range of creative activities, many of which are still evolving as “tourism products.” For instance, there are unique and special classes, such as Alphorn blasen (blowing on an Alpine horn), felt-making, textile workshops, wood carving, painting, cheese-making, dance or photography. There are many more and I encourage you to browse the range of our partners.

TIL: How easy is it to participate in these creative experiences in Austria for someone who doesn’t speak German?

EP: I looked at the response rate from our partners as I translated our webpage and found that 80% have no problem at all dealing with English-speaking guests. Some are a bit more hesitant but all of them would give it a try! I am sure that once the creative process starts, people will soon start loosing their inhibitions – also language-wise.

TIL: On a personal note, what is the best creative travel experience you’ve had yourself?

EP: Julie, this is very hard to say! I think the best is when you reach the FLOW moment, where you forget everything else and the personal souvenir you create then becomes very meaningful, even powerful to you! I think of the souvenirs and creative activities I did in New Zealand as something that will be there for the rest of my life, which is amazing. Recently, I really enjoyed baking bread in Rauris, Salzburg, because of the fun we had with Roswitha who is such a lovely lady. As often happens in life, it’s not (so much) about places, it’s the people !! 🙂

TIL: Thanks so much for chatting with us, Elena! I’m really looking forward to trying out some creative tourism for myself now.