Coffee tourism as creative tourism: implications from Gangneung’s experiences

This chapter discusses the diverse relationships between creativity and coffee tourism in Gangneung, South Korea. Considering coffee tourism as one kind of food and drink tourism, this chapter reviews how previous research has related food and drink tourism with creativity and then outlines how the rise of coffee tourism has been possible in a small city such as Gangneung and how the city’s use of creativity contributed to this achievement. Gangneung’s coffee tourism provides creative tourism opportunities to acquire knowledge about different methods of making coffee and to participate in a variety of coffee-related DIY experiences. In addition, creative spaces are made in cafés, which function as cultural spaces. Coffee tourism now plays a pivotal role in fostering favourable circumstances for culture-based urban regeneration through attracting taste-oriented visitors and enhancing place image. Suggestions for further research on creative tourism in general as well as with respect to food and drink tourism are given. The author suggests a more differentiated understanding of creative tourism is needed to understand a variety of creative tourism developments (such as the ‘snack culture’ type), the creative convergence evident in Gangneung’s experiences is occurring in a great variety of ways and needs to be studied more thoroughly, and the role of media and celebrities in promoting creative tourism could be a significant topic for future research.