Small Tourism Firms Research Articles

The Impact of COVID-19 on Tourism and Hospitality in Poland

Beyond severe illness and deaths, the COVID-19 pandemic brought widespread economic disruption, businesses closing, and unemployment surging to levels not experienced since the Great Depression. The effect of this pandemic on global tourism has been fast, extensive, widespread, and devastating. This paper identifies the significant characteristics of female entrepreneurial businesses. It examines the strategies taken between 2015 and 2022 to influence the firm's growth and reduce the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings are based on the interviews conducted with ten female entrepreneurs who own and operate small family-based entrepreneurial firms in Poland's tourism and hospitality industry. This paper aims to deliver recommendations for policy actions and entrepreneurship strategies to effectively grow and curtail or counterbalance the impact of exogenous shocks such as the economic shutdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Unveiling the Path to Sustainable Behavior in Tourism through a Systematic Literature Review

Environmental sustainability is a crucial focus in the contemporary tourism and hospitality industry due to its potential to protect the environment and benefit society. Despite extensive research on the environmental impact on the industry, there is a need for a comprehensive analysis. The lack of relevant studies on pro-environmental behavior of hospitality and tourism consumers underscores the importance of thorough review. This study utilized the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) protocol to conduct a systematic literature review, focusing on areas such as Local Communities' Commitment, Small Firms in Tourism, Consumer Behavior, and Sustainability Communication. The results of the studies suggest that various independent variables can influence sustainable behavior in tourism, including Difficulty Perception, Eco Concern, Effort Perception, and others. The dependent variables identified in this study are divided into three groups: Technology Adoption, Environmental Attitudes and Beliefs, and Self Expression and Well-being.

PERIPHERAL TOURISM ENTREPRENEURS IN A RESOURCE-CONSTRAINED ENVIRONMENT: EVIDENCE FROM EASTERN CAPE PROVINCE, SOUTH AFRICA

The tourism industry is distinguished from many other economic activities by the dominance of small-scale enterprises and micro-firms. Small tourism firms are critical change agents for destinations, local economic development and poverty reduction most especially in peripheral regions. This paper is situated within a growing international literature on tourism entrepreneurship and specifically the characteristics and motivations of small tourism entrepreneurs and their business operations. The research is conducted in Eastern Cape province of South Africa which is a resource-scarce or resource-constrained environment. Results are presented from a survey of 79 Black-owned small accommodation businesses and 19 semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders. It is shown that women own and operate the majority of these small accommodation businesses. These are mainly bed and breakfast establishments or small guest houses for which the clientele is mostly business tourists and government employees in particular. Issues under scrutiny are business motivations, start-up and operational issues. Networking emerges as an important business strategy for these peripheral entrepreneurs to address the challenges of business development. Overall, this study provides original findings and fresh insight into a segment of peripheral entrepreneurs operating in a resource-scarce context.

A framework for gender influences on sustainable business models in women’s tourism entrepreneurship: doing and re-doing gender

Drawing on the literature that examines business models, feminist ethics of care and social policy, this article develops a theoretical framework for uncovering gender influences on sustainable business models by women entrepreneurs in a highly patriarchal and established tourism destination. Gender influences are socially embedded drivers that inform how women entrepreneurs create and operate sustainable business model archetypes and manifest as doing gender (accepting and complying with gendered perceptions) and redoing gender (resisting gendered perceptions by displaying masculine traits or taking advantage of their femineity) in the business realm. Empirically, the article provides a qualitative analysis of in-depth interviews with women owner-managers of fourteen small tourism firms in Turkey. The study provides evidence of gender influences that materialise as gendered perceptions of identity, role expectations and legislative practices (regulative). The managerial and social policy implications that encourage and support women entrepreneurs in pursuing sustainable business models are critically examined.

What Drives Women Entrepreneurs in Tourism in Tanzania?

ABSTRACT In Tanzania, tourism is one of the most important sectors in terms of its contribution to the nation’s GDP, employment and investment. Women entrepreneurs play a substantial role in the tourism sector. This research contributes to the growing literature on their position in tourism. The study aims at investigating the role of women entrepreneurs in tourism in Tanzania. To find out what drives the women, their socio-economic background (mother education, role models and family support), social capital and economic capital, goal setting (perceptions and aspirations) and the business growth of their firms are studied. Using a survey questionnaire with closed and open questions, data on 120 small tourism firms are assembled. The Structural Equations Modelling method is applied. The research findings provide ample evidence that the capital of the women entrepreneurs drives their goal setting and ultimately their firm’s business growth. By strengthening the capital of the Tanzanian women entrepreneurs in tourism, professional organizations and government policies can help and encourage them to become more beneficial to the society.

Learning about sustainability in small tourism firms – The case of Sustainable Travel Finland

Learning about sustainability in small tourism firms – The case of Sustainable Travel Finland

Covid-19 Crisis Management Responses of Small Tourism Firms in South Africa

Although the literature on COVID-19 is expanding, particularly in relation to crisis management responses pursued by large tourism enterprises, currently few studies exist on the responses of small tourism firms and more specifically of the crisis management practices of small and microaccommodation establishments. The aim in this study is to investigate the business management responses of small tourism firms to the COVID-19 pandemic crisis and restrictions in South Africa. Themes of concern are whether enterprises have been able to sustain operations and adopt certain coping mechanisms or management strategies to mitigate the pandemic's impact. The article reports on an interview survey of small and microenterprises engaged in accommodation services ( N = 75) in South Africa under lockdown restrictions as a means of assessing the responses and coping strategies during an unprecedented crisis of this core component of the country's tourism industry. Among key findings are that small and microlodging firms that have suffered severe financial losses because of the COVID-19 shock have few viable mechanisms to cope with the impact of the crisis and that government support to aid recovery has been insufficient in South Africa. This research contributes to the limited body of international scholarship that examines how small and microaccommodation firms, a major group and contributor of many economies, are navigating the unprecedented COVID-19 environment.

Transformation in South African Tourism: A Geographical Perspective on the Eastern Cape

In the international scholarship about tourism small firms the most distinguishing feature of South Africa relates to transformation debates. This article represents a contribution to the vibrant literature around small tourism firms and change in the global South by analysing the geographies of transformation in one South African province, the Eastern Cape. An historical approach is applied to understand the spatial patterns of transformation as mapped in patterns of ownership of Black small-scale accommodation enterprises. The historical approach shows that different regulatory regimes regarding Black entrepreneurs and their involvement in South African tourism have existed at different times and especially under the influence of apartheid legislation and following democratic change. The formative period of Eastern Cape tourism during the first half of the 20th century witnessed the establishment of a tourism economy dominated by White entrepreneurs and most especially in the coastal areas. The apartheid period, however, allowed a small window of opportunity for Black entrepreneurs to establish tourism businesses in the former ‘reserves’ which would become the Homelands. It is shown that the former Homelands areas are currently the most advanced transformation spaces. This finding reinforces the view that whilst with the end of apartheid the Homelands formally ceased to exist their legacy remains inscribed on the character and geographical patterns of tourism small firm development in South Africa.

Family Matters: Dual Network Embeddedness, Resource Acquisition, and Entrepreneurial Success of Small Tourism Firms in Rural China

Small tourism firms (STFs) established and operated by local families can be an engine of sustainable rural tourism. This paper stresses the intimate intertwining of family and business in rural STFs and conceptualizes their entrepreneurial success as a combination of business performance and family well-being. Integrating the resource-based view and network embeddedness theory, relationships among the STF owners’ dual social networks (family and industry networks), entrepreneurial resource acquisition, and entrepreneurial success are proposed and tested with a sample of 276 STFs in rural China. The empirical analyses reveal that (1) compared with tangible and knowledge-based resources, the owners’ acquisition of psychic resources has the strongest effect on entrepreneurial success; and (2) although industry networks provide more diverse access to entrepreneurial resources, family networks are superior in facilitating psychic resource acquisition, thus are especially important to the entrepreneurial success of rural STFs. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Organisational effectiveness for ethical tourism action: a phronetic perspective

This paper explores how small tourism firms driven by an ethical approach to tourism narrate their organisational effectiveness. The study frames the ethical approach articulated in the first-person accounts of these firms’ owner-managers using Aristotle’s notion of phronesis, that is the process of identifying “good” actions consistent with living well and with an ethical telos. The research consists of a narrative approach via unstructured interviews with owner-managers of small Italian tour operators, members of the Italian Association of Responsible Tourism (AITR) and, as such, driven by an ethical approach to tourism. Data analysis combines features of structural and linguistic narrative analysis. The research findings disclose an organisational effectiveness largely rooted in a personal intuitive disposition gained by practical first-hand experience, personal knowledge, and a moral concern for the achievement of public wellbeing. Moreover, the findings challenge a business-centred approach to organisational effectiveness and question the dominant pro-growth, profit-oriented neoliberal discourses. These considerations can be used for setting the ground in tourism studies for a novel theoretical framework revolving around the ancient Aristotelian tradition of prioritising public wellbeing and happiness over capital accumulation, that further contributes to question market-driven capitalism and neoliberal globalisation.

“From pluri-activity to entrepreneurship: Swedish inshore commercial fisheries navigating in the service-oriented economy”

ABSTRACT For decades, inshore commercial fisheries of Sweden have declined in the number of fishermen. In parallel, the service economy has gained importance and the growth in tourism is one example. This implicates new conditions for small firms, active in traditional rural industries. While knowledge about the socio-cultural context of small tourism firms is underdeveloped and since policymaking assigns these firms a key role in sustainable rural development, this article aims to explore a traditional industry in change during the first decades of the twenty-first century. This qualitative study is based on a fieldwork inspired by multi-sited ethnography, conducted at the Swedish west coast for a dissertation published in 2019. Drawing on discourse theory and the concept of positioning, the analysis concludes that inshore fisheries in the service economy are expected to become sustainable entrepreneurs and hosts for their communities. The fishermen position themselves in a contradictory manner both resisting and conforming to the political management discourse. The contemporary service-oriented economy and social relations largely form these small firms, which are characterised by both a high dependency on authorities and by their encounters with harbour visitors.

Global Citizenship & Parrhesia in Small Values-Based Tourism Firms

In this paper we focus on the relationship between justice and tourism and the tension between consumerism and citizenship within the context of small values-based tourism firms. We combine Foucault’s concept of parrhesia, the speaking of “truth to power”, with Latour’s Actor-Network Theory to show how those businesses are situated in an interconnected world, where the global/local distinction is flattened. This qualitative study adopts a narrative approach which consists of in-depth, unstructured interviews with owner-managers of small Italian tour operators. This research suggests that small firms largely make sense of themselves as global citizens; ‘truth-tellers’, pursuing justice in response to the 21st Century’s crises and challenges. In this scenario, alternative tourism forms of production and consumption centered on human beings and their roles in society become central. Thus, we advocate for the emergence of ways to resist capitalist forms of tourism through collective acts of activism.

Destination development: enhancing small tourism firms competitiveness

Destination development: enhancing small tourism firms competitiveness

Discovery behaviour and creation behaviour of Ethiopian entrepreneurs: the implications for the performance of their small tourism firms

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to assess the effects of discovery and creation behaviour in opportunity identification on firm performance in a developing country context. By doing so, the study adds new knowledge and insights in researching the entrepreneurial behaviour types at the start-up phase and their eventual effects on firm performance.Design/methodology/approachThe study was conducted amongst Ethiopian tour operators (n = 118), which are formally established small tourism firms. A survey questionnaire, which is the main data gathering tool in this study, was prepared based on a distinction between discovery and creation behaviour with regard to the seven entrepreneurial actions described by Alvarez and Barney (2007). Hence, 14 multiple-item measurement scales were derived to define the entrepreneurial behaviour types. Firm performance was measured using four indicators. A regression analysis was conducted to predict the effect of entrepreneurial behaviour at the start-up phase on firm performance.FindingsThe findings of this study provide consistent support for the hypothesis that tour-operating firms in Ethiopia founded through creation behaviour instead of discovery behaviour are performing better in terms of sales, employment, profit and asset size change.Research limitations/implicationsThe theoretical contribution of this study is two-fold. First, it provides a scale for measuring the extent to which discovery and/or creation opportunity identification played a role in the start-up phase of the business. Second, the study assesses the effects of discovery behaviour and creation behaviour in opportunity identification on firm performance in a developing country context.Originality/valueThe entrepreneurs' behaviour through which they identify and pursue new opportunities may have a considerable effect on the subsequent performance of their newly established firms. It is, therefore, important to understand effects, which result from differences in entrepreneurs' behaviour at the start-up phase, in terms of outcomes such as firm performance among small businesses. Nonetheless, there is little empirical research conducted in this regard, particularly in the context of developing countries. This study contributes to the literature of entrepreneurship by applying entrepreneurial behaviour types, i.e. discovery and creation, as determinants of small firms' performance in a developing country context. Furthermore, it is one of the few studies concentrating on formal instead of informal operations in an African context.

Multidimensionality of HRD in small tourism firms: A case study of the Republic of Ireland

This case study explores multiple dimensions of human resource development (HRD) in small tourism firms (STFs) within the Republic of Ireland. Underpinned by the evolutionary resource-based view (ERBV) and institutional logics, this study investigates owner-manager/senior manager and employee perceptions of the internal and external STF context and how such contextual contingencies shape their perceptions and experiences of multiple dimensions of HRD. Our study highlights (a) a dynamic interaction between external institutional logics and internal contextual factors, with the owner–manager acting as a key agent in shaping HRD dimensions; (b) actors within STFs are able to reconcile potentially conflicting institutional logics to create a dynamic HRD approach; (c) STFs implement HRD in a coordinated manner, imbued with elements of formality and informality, and (d) significant differences exist between owner-manager and employee perceptions of HRD dimensions. We discuss the implications of the findings for both research and practice. • A broadening of the investigation of HRD in STFs to include managerial and employee, quantitative and qualitative dimensions. • The owner-manager is a key agent that mediates the impact of external contextual factors on HRD dimensions. • The owner-manager reconciles a plurality of institutional logics within the STF setting. • STF owner-managers and employees may differ significantly in their perceptions and experiences of HRD with the firm. • STFs adopt a coordinated approach to HRD implementation, imbued with elements of formality and informality. • HRD should be explored as a multidimensional concept to capture the actual reality of owner-managers and employees.

Cultural homestay enterprises: Sustainability factors in Kiangan, Ifugao

Abstract This article contributes to the continuing discussion about the community-based tradition of sustainability in small tourism enterprises. An analysis is made of cultural homestay enterprises at a UNESCO World Heritage town in Kiangan, Ifugao as it examines the standardized nature and the effect of the regionalized homestay identity of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). The findings revealed that regional organizations in the ASEAN have focused on improving their competitiveness by marketing homestay tourism product globally. Homestay operations in the region which are holistic in strategy are the 'hard' factors that monitor and systematize the process, while closely related factors arising from culture are said to be the 'soft' elements. The subsequent overlap of the two affect the local enterprises as a whole and consequently promote further homestay tourism. An important implication from these findings are the three foundation variables of cultural tradition and heritage, cultural identity and infrastructure ventilation that is specific to the Philippines. The stronger, embedded and authentic these foundation variables are, the more successful and profitable these small tourism firms will be as this equates to tourist arrivals.

Multipliers and impacts of active sport tourism in the Greek region of Messinia

Few studies on the economic impact of active sport tourism have been conducted, and these are limited to one sport. Multipliers, moreover, relate only to sport activities and not to sport tourist typologies. This article examines the economic impact of four activities (golf, windsurfing, horse riding and scuba diving) on income and employment generation in Messinia, a region in south-western Greece. Since no input–output tables are available at this local level, the ad hoc model was employed. Golf generated higher income and more employment units than the other activities, displaying all of the characteristics of a propulsive activity, a concept derived from the growth pole theory. Regarding typologies, primary sports tourists exhibit higher multipliers than tourists interested in sport in every case. The article, also, partially validates the general consensus that small tourism firms have higher total multipliers than their larger counterparts. Implications stemming from the results are discussed.

Inquiries into critical success factors in governing small tourism firm in sustainable rural economics

Small Tourism Firms (STFs) has been acknowledged by scholars as one of the main features for tourism development especially in the area that received rapid urbanization. Knowledge on the influences of urban morphology with the specific references on tourism entrepreneurship had already started on the early 1980s. However, previous effort were only considering on the theoretical and empirical point of view and focusing on the classification of characters in comparison to other form of small and medium enterprises. The existing literature does not literally cover the understanding of growth and failure of STFs especially in the perspective of financial aspects. Thus, this paper examines the financial factor related to growth and failure of STFs that emphasis on the factors affecting the growth of STFs in the accommodation sector. Langkawi has been selected as the study area due to its superiority as one of the best tourism destinations in Malaysia. An in-depth interview method has been conducted with 10 potential respondents in representing the small firms. The result from the thematic analysis shows that aspects such as access to the loans, financial constraint and finance tendency were established in understanding the financial influence towards the growth of STFs. The critical success factor, from the perspective of financial is critical especially for the governance and coordination urban-rural towards balance development.

The Reality of Financing Small Tourism Firms

Small tourist firms occupy an important place within the Indian tourism industry and make a significant contribution towards gross domestic production. This study investigates access to and finance preferences of SME tourism firms in the Punjab area, India. The study employed a post-positivist research approach depending on semi-structured questionnaires and interviews. The findings confirmed that tourism firms relied on pecking order trajectory, drawing capital from own savings, family and informal lenders, which is consistent with the literature. The study provides a unique insight into issues related to tourism firms and benchmarks findings with SME literature to identify the salient points.

Exploring Sustainable-Oriented Innovation within Micro and Small Tourism Firms

ABSTRACT This paper examines Sustainable-Oriented Innovation (SOI) practices among micro and small firms operating in the tourism and hospitality sectors. In this paper, we argue that firm owners are driven by different forms of lifestyle motivations when conducting their business, with innovative practices reflecting and underlying factors of sustainable development. A qualitative method based on semi-structured interviews was undertaken with 25 owners/managers of firms recognised as being leading actors in sustainability innovation. Findings indicate that the owner/manager’s values had a direct impact on the way the business was structured and managed as well as on SOI practices implementation. Indeed, entrepreneurs who embrace social responsibility and environmental sustainability as lifestyle motivation in their day-to-day business practices and stakeholder relationship proved to be more committed to SOI. The study has theoretical and practical implications in terms of potential to increase understanding of alternative business models and develop the theory further in this domain.