Territorial Planning as a Creative Tool for the Upgrading of Cultural Tourism

Abstract

In the contemporary period of an abundance and diversity of offers in cultural tourism globally, the need for new values, such as creativity, has become unavoidable. As well as creativity being the essence of every cultural practice, it is also becoming a tool with which to link and modernize cultural treasures for tourist consumption today. Its inclusion is also useful in territorial plans, whose strategic role is a driving force for local economies. Creativity can support particularly those sectors that have rich foundations but that suffer from general underdevelopment. Cultural tourism in the town of Golubac and its surroundings in eastern Serbia is a prime example. Although Golubac is situated on the Danube and has one of the best preserved old fortresses in the region, it has not been identified as an important site of cultural tourism. The aim of this chapter is to describe recent efforts to facilitate this branch of tourism through the application of creative tools in local planning documents by means of a multi-criteria analysis of crucial territorial plans for Golubac. In establishing these criteria, the theoretical knowledge that links creativity, cultural tourism and territorial planning will be studied. Implementation of this interlinked knowledge in the analysis will provide the backbone to a proposal for improvements in territorial planning which can profoundly facilitate creativity in cultural tourism globally.