Resumo: The trend towards the concentration of economic and human flows in urban agglomerations has generated global attraction poles reducing development options in other territories. However, territorial reorganisation is becoming more complex and also affects the non-metropolitan territory. The introduction of creativity in urban economies is an example of the relative territorial dispersion of new productive activities. The localization of creative economic activities has been analysed for the case of medium-sized cities, urban peripheries and rural areas, but not for tourist cities. The objective of this study is to analyse -on a local level and based on the calculation of a synthetic index of creativity- the extent to which creative economic activities are present in Spain’s Mediterranean tourist destinations and the Canary Islands compared to other cities and other tourist destinations depending on their specialisation. The results allow us to formulate hypotheses about how tourist areas contribute to the productive reorganisation of the territory and assess their chances of improving competitiveness based on tolerance, innovation and entrepreneurship, providing opportunities for alternative development in the current crisis.
