TRAVEL & TOURISM ENTREPRENEURS

Travel & Tourism Entrepreneurs

Travel & Tourism Entrepreneurs

Skills and Characteristics of Travel & Tourism Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurship is the practice of forming a new business or commercial enterprise, usually in an industry or sector of the economy with a large capacity for growth. Entrepreneurship is generally synonymous with resourcefulness, ingenuity, and the ability to take calculated risks in order to introduce a new, untested product or service into the marketplace. These traits are often referred to collectively as the “entrepreneurial spirit.” In general, Entrepreneurship is the processes leading to any new venture creation. A new venture is a response to a new business opportunity, e.g. the creation of a new company to exploit business opportunities in an emergent market. (Smith, 2009)

Entrepreneurship is driven by the entrepreneur, a person who launches and oversees the operations of a new business venture. The travel & tourism entrepreneur is generally self-employed, self-motivated, and ambitious and is willing to take chances to meet his or her goals. Unlike the capitalist, a businessperson who generally limits his or her role to financing profitable ventures, the entrepreneur is the driving force behind the formation of a new business and asserts a great deal of control over the key management decisions. Many entrepreneurs also assume responsibility for hiring and managing employees. Successful entrepreneurs tend to be highly skilled at organizing and motivating their employees.

Skills Of Travel & Tourism Entrepreneurs

In order to be a successful travel & tourism entrepreneur, one must have the full awareness of the following stages:

1. opportunity recognition;

2. strategy development;

3. specification of the venture's requirements and potential;

4. assembly of resources and financing, and

5. starting the venture.

A narrower definition sees entrepreneurship as concerned with developing innovative new ventures — with an emphasis on invention and innovation in response to changing environments. The new ventures may be developed by autonomous organizations or within established organizations, the latter being termed 'corporate entrepreneurship' or 'intrapreneurship'. Developments in industrial sectors such as telecommunications, media, e-business, computing and biotechnology have led to growing interest in entrepreneurship. In addition to these sector-based opportunities, there have also been geographical-based opportunities (e.g. new ventures in emergent Chinese markets) (termed 'international entrepreneurship'). (Brymer, 2005)

The person willing to take the necessary risks to transform an idea into an actual business that generates sales and profits is called an 'entrepreneur'. In economic theory, this person is seen as someone who brings together and harmonizes the two major factors of production — capital and labour. Considerable attention is paid to the role of the individual entrepreneur, with particular emphasis placed on the starting of small businesses and growing them into large and lucky ones. Entrepreneurship covers the full range of the travel & tourism business including, but not limited to:

1. Concept

2. Conducting analyses

3. Understanding entrepreneurial potential

4. Financial planning, borrowing, and control

5. Franchising

6. Location and property analysis

7. Ownership and management.

Concept, advertising, innovation, and promotion includes knowledge of how to target a market, generate ideas for new or improved products or services, develop a budget, select the ...