Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Tourism

Abstract

Entrepreneurship and innovation are critical factors in tourism and are both central to the continued success and development of the industry, both globally and regionally. As evidenced in the text by Hall and Williams (2008), entrepreneurship and innovation can refer to a variety of concepts. For example, they can refer to the changes in the organisation of work, leisure time and absolute and relative income dis- tribution as can they refer to exogenous sources of innovation such as technology. Tourism can also drive innovation, either through the behaviour of firms or through deliberate policy making and interventions from government while it can also drive innovation through its involvement in key sectors such as retailing. Interestingly, however, academic articles on entrepre- neurship and innovation in tourism are few and far between. Although case studies on both themes appear from time to time, em- pirical studies remain limited while in those papers that have reached publication, in many, there remains a paucity of empiri- cal rigour. As such, it is the view of the three editors that entrepreneurship and innovation in tourism remains an under researched area of investigation and, there- fore, new critical insights of theoretical frameworks, methodologies and sector- specific studies are required if the field is going to mature and ‘catch up’ other more established areas of intellectual enquiry such as tourism planning and marketing.