Tourism and Theatre: Building a New Relationship for a New Cultural Tourism

The connection between tourism and theatre remains underinvestigated within tourism literature despite its potential to create new cultural offerings, innovative tourism encounters, and employment prospects for both industries. This chapter aims to propose a framework to analyse the relationship between theatre and tourism across three distinct tiers: the destination level, fostering the creation of novel tourism experiences through collaborative efforts with tourism entities, the cultivation of connections with tourists to pinpoint strategies enhancing mutual engagement and cooperation between these sectors. This framework highlights at least two pressing needs: first, to bolster awareness of theatrical practices among those involved in the tourism sector, and second, to emphasise among theatre professionals the role tourism can play in broadening audience outreach and incubating novel cultural initiatives.