Entrepreneurial motivation and destination evolution

Abstract

This study aims to understand the small tourism business owner’s entrepreneurial motivation in different stages of destination development. Using a qualitative approach, 46 entrepreneurs who owned guesthouses in the Old Town of Lijiang, China, were interviewed. The findings suggest that business orientation was dominant in the predevelopment stage and that the livelihood motivation was a main cause of business orientation, whereas lifestyle orientation was obvious in the early development stage and most of the lifestyle-oriented owners had been tourists who enjoyed the place. However, the percentage of business orientation increased when the tourism area entered into a rapid growth stage, as more entrepreneurial investments were established. Therefore, this study identifies a pattern of small tourism business owners’ entrepreneurial motivation in different stages of destination development. An interactive view that connects tourism entrepreneurship and destination evolution is applied. 本文尝试探讨在旅游目的地发展的不同阶段旅游小企业主的创业动机。主要采用定性研究方法，以中国丽江古城为例，对不同时期创办客栈的所有者进行深度访谈。研究发现，在旅游地发展的初期，旅游小企业主的动机以商业型为主，并且生计动机是商业型动机的主要因素；随着旅游地进入发展阶段，小企业主的生活方式型动机开始变得明显，并且很多生活方式型小企业主是因为喜欢该旅游地而留下创业、生活；然而，随着旅游地进入高速发展阶段，更多投资型的企业主开始进驻该旅游地创业。因此，本研究提出了一个随着旅游目的地的发展旅游小企业主创业动机的变化趋势。