From an academic perspective, this study contributes to the literature on creativity in tourism systems, and it develops a model of creative experience from the tourists’ viewpoint. In order to have creative experiences, creative tourists must first have self, social, cultural, or environmental related consciousness/awareness in their minds. In other words, the same activities experienced by creative and other tourists will have different outcomes, with the former more likely to have creative experiences. For tourists who are not aware/conscious of these issues, once their consciousness/awareness has been evoked during the experience, they will become creative tourists and also have creative experiences. The uniqueness of creative tourism is thus the consciousness/awareness of the issues evoked by each activity.