This paper proposes an agent‐based model (ABM) that combines ethnographic and economic methods to analyse how the social interaction between creative actors generates new creative knowledge. The chosen case of study is Puerto Vallarta, a sun and beach international destination in Mexico. Puerto Vallarta contains, potentially, many of the key elements that are discussed in the literature on creative economy. Our methodological strategy identifies ethnographically types of knowledge that are associated with a standard typology of creative industries in a city. The model is evaluated by simulations of agents engaged in producing ideas based on these types of knowledge either collectively or individually. Among the main findings are the presence of ‘elevated common knowledge’ between creative agents (which can be an important constraint for rising creativity) and that mixed behaviour of knowledge production (collective and individual) can boost better the production of ideas in Puerto Vallarta. Finally, we claim that the proposed methodology can be extended to and implemented in other similar contexts.