Cultural and Creative Tourism in Rural and Remote Areas: European Perspectives

This paper reviews the literature on Cultural and Creative Tourism in Rural and Remote Areas in Europe, analysing major research themes, trends and future research areas. Systematic and narrative reviews were conducted of 316 complete text sources in Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar to provide comprehensive coverage of relevant sources. Additional searches of databases in 12 EU countries identified a further 467 texts in languages other than English, thereby strengthening the European perspective of the study. The data were coded thematically and analysed using ATLAS Ti software. The results show a strong recent growth in research, identifying four key areas of focus: experiencing rurality, staying in rural places, navigating the landscape, and developing tourism. Gastronomy and events were critical aspects of rural experiences, and a strong growth in intangible heritage research was identified. However, other areas lack attention, including geographical variations in rural areas and their effects on tourism experiences, the relationship between urban and rural contexts, and the meanings of remoteness. There is also a lack of research on key transversal themes, such as sustainability and governance. Areas identified as fruitful for future research include place-based analysis of CCT and further investigation into visitor motivations to inform experience development and the creation of new business models for desirable segments.