World Tourism Day is observed on September 27 and this year the official celebration will be held in Bali, Indonesia. The theme for this year is – ‘Rethinking Tourism’. The cornerstone will be on reviewing the growth of the tourism sector, rethinking and redeveloping tourism after the COVID-19 pandemic.
In this context, the connection of tourism with entrepreneurship takes into account the economic development of areas that tourists flock to, and aims to create new sustainable businesses by increasing the capacity and willingness of enterprises to develop, organize a business by managing risks and profit too.
Importance of tourism in the business sector
Let’s take a look at the definitions. Technically, a ‘tourism entrepreneur’ may be defined as a person or a group of people producing and managing ‘tourism’ products. As far as the definition of ‘tourism entrepreneurship’ goes, one can convincingly define tourism entrepreneurship as the professional application of knowledge, skills and competencies, monetizing a tourism-related new idea, for launching an enterprise to pursue growth while generating wealth, employment opportunities and also being socially responsible, working towards social good.
While we were face-to-face with the unprecendented pandemic, business was badly disturbed. And, the field of tourism entrepreneurship was deeply affected. There has been positive government support too, and this was visible across the globe. In an effort to induce positive effects on entrepreneurship, many countries have developed specially-thoughtout strategies for tourism initiatives, in order to mitigate the adverse effects of the pandemic.
Providing multiple opportunities for women in business
The tourism sector is one of the key sectors in India – providing multiple opportunities for women to move ahead in their own entrepreneurial activities. It is one of the fast- developing sectors in India, and the scope for development of women entrepreneurship is unlimited. Economic independence, peer support, strategic management and social values are factors influencing development of women entrepreneurship in the tourism sector.
Incidentally, tourism always thrives and how! In many of the world’s poorest countries – there is a thriving tourism industry. Tourism has an unmatched ability to boost equality across the world. It is the meeting-point where wealthy travellers or foreigners come into direct contact with rickshaw drivers, shop keepers, weavers, craftsmen, tea-sellers, and so on, as is the case in India.
Tourism boasts of another superpower: majority of its workforce is female. With such a broad geographical reach, added to the wide range of skills required, tourism can indeed, be beneficial to women. It has the opportunity to move women out of poverty, equip them with skills and provide dignified, sustainable employment. In nations facing difficult times, it is invariably the women who struggle most, and it is seen that they are disadvantaged from the outset by many factors – like lack of access to education, scant maternity benefits, cultural expectations about the woman’s role in the home, and inherent gender bias in the workplace.
So, the tourism industry sets forth huge potential and in fact, can give a huge boost to women entrepreneurship.
Avtar Madan
Himanshu
Shree Lahiri
