The Barcelona Creative Tourism programme was established by FUSIC (Society and Culture Foundation) in 2005. FUSIC had been fostering civic creativity in Barcelona for thirty years, through the management of participative projects aimed to stimulate social involvement in artistic activities. As the name FUSIC suggests, the focus is on the way culture is produced and not just ‘consumed’ by society - all the projects led by FUSIC include this participative component. In this context, we were rapidly aware of the growing demand from foreign groups eager to perform or have an artistic experience in Barcelona.
At the same time, Richards and Raymond’s (2000) research on creative tourism confirmed that we were facing a new tourist trend. Although this way of discovering a culture by experiencing it had been followed by a minority of ‘romantic and bohemian travellers’ for decades or even centuries, it now seems that there are more and more ‘conventional tourists’ who want to dedicate at least some hours of their stay to take part in a creative and participative activity that gives them the opportunity to know more about a concrete aspect of the local culture, as well as to feel like a local for a while.