Culturally-based community tourism ventures in Southern Africa and rural women entrepreneurs’ skills

Abstract

ABSTRACT Rural women entrepreneurs are tapping into the abundant cultural tourism resources in Southern Africa to support household livelihoods. This research focuses on the entrepreneurship skills, demonstrated by rural women entrepreneurs when managing culturally-based tourism ventures in Southern Africa. The ventures enable rural women entrepreneurs to earn income, create employment and also help to sustain the case communities' cultural resources. A qualitative research design was adopted to capture the narratives of rural women entrepreneurs' experiences. The entrepreneurship skills were identified guided by the researchers' subjective and reflex interpretation of the entrepreneurs' experiences, and understanding of contextual factors that influence performance. The results indicate that the participants' skills are heterogeneous and are mainly shaped by tacit processes and social networks. The dominant entrepreneurship skills among the participants are resilience and product development, with tourism legislation and computer skills lacking. This research provides insight into the existing strengths and resources that rural women have access to. More importantly, the research sheds light on the skills that need to be improved to enhance service quality. Policy makers can use this information to support further development, and capacity building by providing opportunities to improve the skills lacking among rural women entrepreneurs in Southern Africa.