CREATOUR, 2nd International Conference. Emerging and Future Trends in Creative Tourism. University of Minho. Braga, Portugal Understanding consumerism practices is critically important for tourism development, and event conceptualization. Knowing about visitors’ behaviour is need in order to design an effective and efficient festival, which guarantee a positive impact on local business and international reputation. This is especially important when we talk about events that take place in small or medium cities. This paper describes the case study of Lumina Cascais (2017), the most important festival of light in Portugal and founder member of the international festival of light network Spectrum. This mixmethod work (ethnography and web based survey [n=440]) was conducted during the sixth edition of this festival and intended to profile the visitor, to know who walks in the street; review their expectations, reasons why to visit a creative event; and to know how much and where do they spent during this three days event. Findings suggest that this kind of event represent an important economic impact and an excellent promotion opportunity for the culture and the arts at the same time that helps on the construction of city branding, linking creative values to the name of the host city.

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International events creative tourism,local economic impact,light festivals,second Portuguese cities.