Creative Tourism and Urban Sustainability: The Cases of Lisbon and Oporto

Abstract

The paper contributes to the emergent debate on cultural and creative tourism and sustainable development interconnections base on two cases studies: Lisbon and Porto, discussing a set or composite of indicators that contribute to assess cultural/creative tourism dynamic and policy, such as ‘Cultural and Creative Cities Monitor’ and ‘Creative Cities Index’. The study underlines the growing importance of cultural and creative tourism in the two Portuguese cities, based for instance in the existence of UNESCO World Heritage Sites, initiatives such as European Capital of Culture, Expo and Euro, international thematic festivals, growing dynamic of Cultural and Creative industries, among many other international, national, regional and local initiatives. Comparing Lisbon and Oporto, the capital reveals a better performance in “cultural vibrancy”, “creative economy”, “enabling environment”.