Entrepreneurship Development and Tourism in Rural African Communities

Abstract

The paper discusses the phenomenon of entrepreneurship development within the context of tourism. It examines factors that influence the probability that an individual will successfully engage in entrepreneurship, to help develop new insights about tourism entrepreneurship development in rural African communities. Significant issues identified, which require the attention of project managers in improving the prospects for tourism entrepreneurship development in that setting, were the appropriate identification of potential tourism entrepreneur and perception of entrepreneurial opportunities, the deeply partisan political environment and the process of transferring relevant managerial skills to potential entrepreneurs.

Tourism Towns and Entrepreneurial Orientation: The Identification and Exploitation of Opportunities

“…These differences in individuals' beliefs are down to two fundamental reasons: the first comes from the nature of decision-making itself. In the majority of cases, individuals adopt decisions based on incomplete information, heuristically, with some degree of intuition (Austin, 2003). This principle of limited rationality leads to decisions being made that are not always correct, which means that certain resources might be priced lower than they might be, or they might be used inefficiently.…”

“…Not all individuals and organisations are capable of identifying an opportunity (Austin, 2003). This characteristic distinguishes entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial businesses from those that are not.…”