Challenges

Nowadays, 84 per cent of the Mexican population lives in urban areas (UNHabitat, 2021). According to data from the Mexican Tourism Secretariat, the city of Querétaro is positioned as one of the top non-beach tourist destinations in the country. In 2019, tourism in the Querétaro metro area directly generated close to 10,000 million pesos, however this type of measurement does not yet properly contemplate the revenue produced by the cultural and creative sector that crowds the public squares with festivals and exhibitions. The venues linked to design, crafts, gastronomy, literature, cinema, digital arts and music have been (and will continue to be) key triggers for the economic, health and social recovery of the city after the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, in the absence of an observatory and mapping of the creative industry in the country, it is difficult to identify the actions and actors that generate such efforts within the citizenry and the private sector. Analyzing this circumstance and identifying that the city’s creative industry is one of the most unprotected and least supported sectors by public and private programs, an efficient model of dissemination, mapping and linkage of the active creative industry in Querétaro was opened and pointed out.

Toward a Solution

Agenda Creativa is a sustainable and comprehensive model to identify, measure, link, promote and strengthen the actors and activities emanating from the creative and cultural industries, creating a bond and strengthening from the tourism revenue, linked to SDGs 8 (Decent work and economic growth), 11 (Sustainable cities and communities) and 12 (Responsible consumption and production).

The initiative aims to link, disseminate and strengthen the activities emanating from the creative industry, through strategies of cultural tourism, community tourism and sustainable tourism. It does this through mapping and geopositioning private and public spaces for the comfort of the traveler, using technology to reduce the gap between creators and their audiences.

Creative Agenda works through satellite geopositioning and NFC sensors linked to the businesses, venues, experiences and activities of the creative sector in the city of Querétaro, Mexico. When walking around the city, the tourists approach one of the 100 sensors distributed in strategic areas of the city and receive a notification about the businesses and activities that are 300 meters away. In addition, when registering, every tourist can create personalized routes linking two or more venues or take part in ingenious activities along the way.

Agenda Creativa brings the city’s cultural and creative offer closer to the tourists who are already in our city, making them visible and disseminating them through the use their own of digital devices.

Agenda Creativa is a mapping and geopositioning solution, resulting in an observatory of the local creative industry, through algorithms and strategies linked to tourism. In just one year, this strategy will allow, to map and restore activation for the approximately 35,000 creatives in the metropolitan area; strengthening their activities, spreading their activities and reducing the gap to bring them closer to new audiences.

This strategy has been linked to the effort of Fortaleza, Brazil, to identify, through signage design, creative businesses linked to the designation as UNESCO Creative City, as well as to the effort to create experiences through gastronomy with the Food Poets project, applied by the city of Ensenada in Baja California, Mexico; creating an example of South-South articulation and cooperation.

The Creative Agenda can be applied by other creative cities. To this end, an advisory and training model is being generated by Querétara Creativo and the Consejo Promotor de la Creatividad. AC that will allow the tropicalization of the model in each city and strengthening of the technology that allows a greater growth of each of the local creative industries.