The residents' participation in tourism based social entrepreneurship organization: Evidence from residents’ perception on ecosphere social enterprise

Abstract

The main objective of this study is to investigate the residents' perceived benefits (economic, infrastructure development, quality of life, environmental conservation and cultural development) by participating in tourism social enterprises (TSE) formation and implementation phases. Specifically, this study uses Ecosphere social enterprise as a case study to assess the residents' participation in two different phases of TSE. To achieve the study objective, we collect field-based data on four locations (Kaza, Langza, Komic and Dhankhar) in the state of Himachal Pradesh, India. The survey was carried out in September 2019 and qualitative techniques were used for the analysis. The results reveal that the residents play an important role in TSE formation and development phases, where the tourism benefits have a mediating role. The overall results indicate that the residents' participation in the TSE development phase yielded higher benefits than the formation phase. Management implications1)In order to effectively encourage local residents to support all stages of tourism social enterprises (TSE), strategic tourism plans should be reviewed from each perspective based on the economic and Non-economic factors of tourism on local residents.2)Local residents in formation stage have less interaction with tourism activities and tourists and thus have limited knowledge about TSE strategies for tourism development than they do in the development stage. Therefore Social enterprises should allow residents to access the information and encourage them to participate decision making in all stages.3)Some tourism services were provided by a few residents in developmental stage, the economic benefits to all residents appear to be limited. Therefore, the residents also did not perceive many economic benefits from TSE in the developmental stage. Therefore, TSE managers must ensure that direct employment is provided to residents to ensure that tourism revenue is distributed among a greater number of residents.