ABSTRACT
Entrepreneurship is a major force in economic development, since it is responsible for generating growth and acts as a vehicle for innovation and change in the economy. This chapter examines the nature of tourism entrepreneurship, the importance of innovation and small business development. The term ‘small or medium enterprise’ tends to complicate things, since the European Union definition of ‘medium enterprise’ is of 100-499 employees while ‘small’ is 10-99 employees. Larger tourism economies ‘have a wider range of entrepreneurial opportunities’ and political changes such as deregulation and privatization which have provided opportunities in the tourism sector for entrepreneurs to succeed. In societies which show a marked respect for ‘seniority’ and authority, the environment is unlikely to be conducive to the creation of large numbers of entrepreneurs. ‘Innovation’ is a comparatively recent term to be examined in entrepreneurship , and Ateljevic and S. J. Page and D. Hall and A. M. Williams provide an excellent overview of contributions to this area.
