Mapping the Tourism Entrepreneurial Process: A Sampling from Connecticut, USA

Abstract

The continuous birthing of touristic enterprises contributes to an area’s economic vitality and socio-cultural vibrancy. Thus theoretical, empirical, and/or experiential information about how touristic enterprises are created would seem valuable. This study sought to empirically determine the extent of congruency between a conceptual model of the tourism entrepreneurial process and the actual experiences of a sample of tourism entrepreneurs in CT, USA. The findings from fifty three tourism entrepreneurs indicated a moderately high level of concordance (82.7%) between the conceptual model and the field data. If a “personological” factor was added, the model would better account for behavioral variation across individuals and situations. Advice for aspiring tourism entrepreneurs was also provided by the study sample.