Abstract
Purpose of the study: The objectives of the study were to critically examine the challenges faced by entrepreneurs in tourism business in establishing their businesses in Oman; to critically analyze whether the entrepreneurs in the tourism business are motivated to establish tourism business in Oman and to critically analyze the prospects for entrepreneurs to venture into the tourism sector in Oman. Design/Methodology: The data was collected through a well-defined questionnaire through which 241 tourism entrepreneurs from Oman, including unemployed youth who were interested in tourism were selected, on a random sampling basis. Structural Equation Modelling through Smart PLS was used to analyze the data. Findings: The results of the research show that the initial capital, working capital, and good location are the essential factors required to establish a tourism business in Oman. It was confirmed that the prevailing rules and regulations are strict and rigid to start a tourism business in Oman and it takes lots of time to start the operation of tourism businesses; seeking labor clearance procedure is NOT simple for tourism. Cultural values and physical working conditions do not encourage tourism-related businesses and the non-preference of spouses from the tourism sector is another major constraint for Omanis in taking up tourism businesses. Implications: It was suggested that the Government should provide strategic support to the tourism-related entrepreneurs; the Government should provide financial guidance to encourage tourism entrepreneurs irrespective of their ages. Governmental licensing authorities and all licenses to set up tourism businesses need to be obtained in one place. The Government should invest in super-structure projects to enhance the scope of tourism. Training must be provided by the Government to enhance the tourism business in Oman. Originality: This is the study of its kind and no research was carried out ever before to study solely the challenges of tourism entrepreneurship in Oman. Keywords: Tourism, Challenges, Tourism Entrepreneurship, Financial Constraints, Technological Support, Government Support, Procedures, and Formalities.
Highlights
Entrepreneurship is the process of setting up new businesses in an innovative way
Hypotheses After going through the above review of literature, the present study considers factors such as Reasons for starting up tourism business, Procedure & Formality difficulties, Financial constraints, Technology factors, Government support factors and the Challenges faced by tourism entrepreneurs and the following hypotheses were framed: 1. Procedural formalities and financial constraints are the typical challenges faced by tourism entrepreneurs in Oman
S2 Starting a tourism-related business could help Oman’s Economy s3 Oman has the three necessaries for tourism - Sun, Sea, and Scene to justify the scope of tourism business s4 There are lots of chances to venture into the tourism business
Summary
The term ‘Tourism Entrepreneurship’ was first used to refer those entrepreneurs who were involved in the process of venturing into tourism businesses in Oman (Khan & Krishnamurthy, 2016). The Sultanate of Oman is one of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries in the Middle East which has progressive and steady economic growth. Due to the important role played by the tourism sector in the economic growth of the country, the Government of Oman started paying more attention to the tourism sector and effective strategies for the sustainable development of the sector are in progress. Oman is paying more attention to tourism entrepreneurship (Alani, Khan, & Manuel, 2017). The sultanate of Oman aims to generate about 535,000 jobs in Tourism
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