Creativity has become one of the most important strategic instruments of the new paradigm for economic growth. This is characterized by a changing environment, and even turbulent (Kotler and Caslione, 2009). This new era, that some authors called "variable geometry" (De Borja and Gomis: 2009: 30), requires a great deal of skill to the practice of divergent thinking. Now, the creativity leaves the Psychology, area of research in which grew conceptually, to disembark at the Business Management and the Economy, at the same time that is instrumentalized as an important attribute to the tourist destinations that want to be competitive. On the other hand, the cultural tourism, especially in urban areas, according to Turespaña (2012), was the tourist motivation chosen in 2011 by 9.4 million people to visit Spain. This amount represents 17% of the total tourist arrivals to our country and has resulted in an increase with respect to 2010 of 26 %. Continuing with the same source, the average daily cost for cultural tourists stood at 101 euros, a 56.4 % above the rest of travels. All this goes to show that the urban segment will continue behaving well in the coming years, in spite of the crisis (Turespaña, 2012). These data are linked to the improvement of accessibility, to city breaks, mainly through low-cost airlines, as well as, in the particular case of our country, to the communications by high speed train. This increase of the attractive urban has generated an increasing competition, which should lead to the cities to seek and its competitive advantages in an innovative way. This article, in this context, focuses its attention on the relationship between creativity and tourist cities, for, as well, to know the specific weight of this in the local tourist systems that make up the cultural destinations. There is talk of creativity as a generator of competitiveness but, however, does not exist, in the field of tourism, an instrument that will allow us to measure it as systemic feature. However, we must not forget the contributions that, in this field, have made authors such as Florida (2002, 2009 and 2010) or Landry (2010), although these cities were analyzed at a general level and not as local tourist systems. We should also mention the work of measurement of creativity at the national level made by Innometrics (2009) and their design, Creativity and Innovation: A Scoreboard Approach, project directed by van Cruysen and Hollanders. The main objective of this research is to generate a synthetic index that make it possible to know the specific weight that holds the creativity in a urban tourist destination through its three dimensions (space, environmental and institutional), called Creacity. Establishing the hypothesis, that the three dimensions described in the proposed index are positively correlated between themselves. The spatial dimension includes indicators used to evaluate the physical spaces and infrastructures that facilitate the development of creativity in the cultural tourism destination, as well as the monumental resources identified by authors such as Landry (2000) with the existence of a creative historical environment. This has been coupled with the facilities of the territory to access the same and generate tourist flow. Therefore, this block allows to know the value of:
• Cultural and creative spaces.
• Academic Institutions that encourage the creativity.
• Tourist establishments in creative uniqueness.
• Physical and digital connectivity. The environmental dimension will include a set of indicators that evaluated the talent of the staff society, the weight of the creative class in the whole of the population, along with its activity, the proposals to stimulate our creativity and the behaviors that tend to configure the environment open, tolerant and creative that breathes the local tourist system. Therefore, this block allows you to know:
• Creative classes and creative sectors.
• Creative production classes.
• Cultural offer.
• Openness, tolerance and citizen participation.
• Creative Tourism. Finally, the institutional dimension will include the indicators that facilitate the knowledge of the degree of creativity and stimulation of the same that presents the institutional framework of a tourist destination urban cultural. Therefore, in this are considered items that allow us to know:
• Transparency policy -open government - electronic administration.
• Socio-economic strategy.
• Talent institutional.
• Creative stimulation. After a thorough review of the scientific literature, It is proceeded to establish a proposal for indicators to be integrated into the Synthetic Index of Creativity in urban systems local tourist-cultural (Creacity). For validation tourist-creative, was submitted to a panel of experts of eight people specialists in creative cities, tourism innovation, creative tourism and tourism planning. Once validated the system of indicators that they have to feed the synthetic index, it is proceeded to apply the same to the cultural tourism destinations of Bilbao, Cordoba and Granada. The choice of these destinations is justified by the following reasons:
a) They are cities of similar size population. Bilbao with 352,700 inhabitants and Córdoba, with 328,659. In the case of Granada (240,099 inhabitants), its population is smaller, but within the margins to be considered in the same group (medium-sized cities with a population < 500 thousand and > 200 thousand).
b)The three appear in the ranking of the 20 Spanish tourist cities more competitive by Exceltur developed in 2012, so they can compare competitiveness with creativity, establishing correlation coefficients associated with the three case studies.
c) It is of interest compare cities that are based on different cultural tourist generators: two (Cordoba and Granada) based on its unbeatable monumental heritage inherited (World Heritage Cities) and the third (Bilbao) in the creation of a new resource, projected and born with a clear vocation touristic-cultural (Guggenheim Museum).
d)The possibility of submitting to comparative study cities north-south (although, with the limitations on the number of the sample). In the use of indicators expressed in units, scales, and very different values, it had to proceed, in the first place, to a process of normalization. Following the methodology applied to the development of other synthetic indices the aggregation and weighting of the various indicators that make up the index Creacity was carried out on a proportional basis. That implies not introduce differences, or assessments, on weights with which you enter each one of them in the overall calculation, which is performed by an arithmetic average of the three dimensions. The only weighting is derived from the number of different indicators established in each of the dimensions. In case of non-availability of data on an indicator, this does not count in tallying total end of the city. In relation to the conclusions, we can indicate that with this research has embarked on a course that aims to deepen in the relationships that may exist in the tourism-creativity, exploring the creativity as an operational strategy that makes cities tourist destinations competitive, prepared, at the same time, to deal with continuous change. As we have seen, the subject had been treated to form rough by some authors (Richards & Wilson, 2007), but was in need of valuation metrics and real. From the same, you can pose the following conclusions:
§ Creativity has a comprehensive and deep theoretical framework, developed from the Psychology that lets you delve into the four keys of divergent thinking: the creative person, the creative product, the creative process and the creative environment. It is now to take advantage of all this in the improvement of economic activities, especially in tourism. To know the specific weight that presents the creativity in the company of a territory, you must measure your creative production, the presence of talent, the existence of institutional policies and instruments that promote and the intellectual process that generates it.
§ The creative city, understood this as a socio-economic space in which people can express their talents and are utilized, exploited and promoted, is configured as a model system of local tourism based on creativity. The synthetic index is a tool that lets you know the creativity of a local tourist system cultural, this is formed from three dimensions (space, environmental and institutional).
§ Bilbao is a urban cultural destination more creative than Cordoba and Granada, thanks to its creative environment and a few institutions that cater for the divergent thinking. Granada and Cordoba does not take advantage of their spatial dimension creative to generate a creative tourism system. So a spatial dimension creative low does not limit the existence of creativity in the destination (see the case of Bilbao). The institutional dimension is a major weakness in the whole of the three cities analyzed. The destinations are in need of an administrative framework that fosters entrepreneurship and creativity (and, therefore, the innovation), as well as institutions that do not fear the divergent thinking. The transfer of knowledge from the University to the society is basic to improve this aspect. Classification-JEL: R1 Keywords: Creatividad, Destinos turísticos, indicador, Competitividad, Creacity, Creativity, Tourism destination, Indicator, Competitiveness Pages: 69-108 Volume: 2 Year: 2015 File-URL: http://www.revistaestudiosregionales.com/documentos/articulos/pdf-articulo-2470.pdf File-Format: Application/pdf Handle: RePEc:rer:articu:v:2:y:2015:p:69-108