Abstract
Tourism as an industry is growing rapidly all around the world. People working for tourism show great potential for Entrepreneurship from all strata of tourism business. The main aim of this research study is how tourism practices help them in developing entrepreneurship skills & at the same time what should be done in tourism education to inherit entrepreneurship skills at the college level in tourism students.
Introduction
Tourism is an age old phenomenon from pilgrimage, business to pleasure. Travellers, in past travelled for different perspectives & travelled around the world in those hard days of tourism facilities. After World War-II tourism grew as an industry in real sense, with transportation developments & accommodation facilities. Currently tourism provides answers to- many industrial practices those are hazardous to environment, with pro-poor nature of tourism & multiplier effects on economy. Planned in sustainable manner, tourism caters needs of those people who are at the low stratum of economy & social ladder with its different products & vast reach. The people involved in this business of tourism to provide different services desired by tourists have a unique tendency of being entrepreneurs. While working for any part of tourism services they work independently for their own business as well. To showcase these tendencies in research many case studies have been illustrated to put forward the point. At industry level many Tourism Practices help them to acquire Entrepreneurship Skills to formulate different business plans in small as well as at large scale. Many of them start these entrepreneurial initialization skills as a part time business simultaneously working for their employers & at later stage establishes their own business. Tourism education at basic level helps them to incorporate knowledge of other fields so profoundly that a learned practitioner of tourism establish his business with in short time frame. This research work incorporates methodologies like Personal Interviews, Questionnaires & Case Studies to collect primary data. Secondary data is so useful in a sense to understand Tourism and its different products. Findings of the research work are showing entrepreneurial skills in Tourism Practitioners at all level, they establish their business either independently or in proximity of their employment. Tourism education on the other part plays a pivotal role to incorporate profound knowledge & help them establish their business in lesser time frame. The study shows how Tourism Practices help them in being an Entrepreneur & how these skills can be enlarged with proper educational practices. A comparative study will also be done among other education scenarios & tourism to understand to what extent tourism studies incorporate entrepreneurial skills into students. With this study a specific frame work will also be chalked out for the betterment of students studying in different tourism institutes to instigate entrepreneurial skills.
Discussing the entrepreneurial skills one major point comes into mind that it don’t work in all the facet of circumstances, measuring it again is so hard & ambiguity prevails to certain extent, not being a well measured science due limitations of psychology subject comes in it as well to measure it. But with well laid out measurements of different measuring techniques a substantial measurement is developed to measure it. By not using all quantitative technique all the time in due course of study the research is a mixed bag of qualitative & quantitative research techniques. Outcomes to state are stated in well laid out directions of what to do & in which manner of tourism education to inherit these skills in tourism students at college levels. Study brings even other outcomes regarding tourism practices & trends that motivate tourism practitioners to start their entities & will help the policy makers of tourism industry to make policies & strategies in such a manner to plan a better environment for tourism practitioners. As the study is a pioneer attempt to know the existent reality so it may bring out some new outcomes to a certain extent. But being pioneer, one is limited with the direction to which to move & what exactly comes is hard to state. Further scope of study is immense from this study as it will open a new door in the area of tourism study in country.
Problem
Different industries help employees to develop different skills to confront different problems that come in their day to day working conditions. Few of them make them, mere followers of orders of their bosses; like switching a button to start a certain mechanical gadget. Others incorporate them so profusely not to have a single minute to think something beyond their daily course of routine. Overall job’s conditions differ from one another industry but the educational part has some common pattern in colleges. They go from certain faces of study to acquire different skills to work in future. But once they go through this period they find themselves many a times slave of their study & has little scope to think beyond. So their educational practices have little but working condition plays more important role in their skill development. On the contrary tourism education & tourism practices give them immense freedom & time to think differently and develop themselves as an entrepreneur.
Entrepreneurship Concept
In order to understand the role played by entrepreneurs in developing an economy, firstly it’s important to understand the concept of entrepreneurship. While choosing a definition for entrepreneurship it is important to bear in mind the skills that will be needed to improve the quality of life for individuals, and to sustain a healthy economy and environment. Taking this into consideration, one can find that each of the traditional definitions has its own weakness. Hence, the most appropriate definition is a combination of wherein entrepreneurship can be defined as—
A force that mobilizes other resources to meet unmet market demand. (Jones and Sakong, 1980); the ability to create and build something from practically nothing. (Timmons, 1989) the process of creating value by pulling together a unique package of resources to exploit an opportunity. (Stevenson, et al, 1985)
Early Theories of Entrepreneurship
Richard Cantillon (1680-1734) was the first of the major economic thinkers to define the entrepreneur as an agent who buys means of production at certain prices to combine them into a new product. He classified entrepreneur as the most active among three agents, connecting the producers with customers.
Jean Baptise Say (1767-1832) improved Cantillion’s definition by adding that the entrepreneur brings people together to build a productive item. Both were indicative of entrepreneur as a separate entity combining it with other substantial aspect of business. They somehow drew a line to induce entrepreneurial skills into the gamut of business development.
Frank Knight's Risk Bearing Theory
Frank Knight (1885-1972) first introduced the dimension of risk-taking as a central characteristic of entrepreneurship.
The theory brought uncertainty as a factor of production & precisely broadened the anticipation of future events as a main characteristic of entrepreneurs. The entrepreneur earns profit as a reward for taking such risks.
Different theorists explained entrepreneurship differently commonly coming to the conclusion that entrepreneurship skills start new business entities combing the current resources differently. They show different traits of leaderships, imaginative skills, risk bearing qualities, keen understanding of future, future forecast ability, managerial skills of top level etc. to combine all the present situations & resources to bring something new or different in market. Production of same goods with different prospect makes them different in current market situation & lessen the competition existed in market.
Conclusive Understanding of Entrepreneurship
When we try of draw a conclusive picture of what Entrepreneurship really is we come to conclusion that it has all the qualities of a good leader & manager moreover entrepreneurs should have qualities of rational thinking including creativity. Innovation is a major factor that takes entrepreneurs to a new level, their ability to understand market scenario is so unique in them that they start a new entity at the appropriate time. As Timmon mentions the Resource factor, Opportunity factor & Team factor are so important in entrepreneur’s development. They work in cohesion to develop an entrepreneur. Another facet of entrepreneur is risk taking ability. They use it with so much understanding of market scenario that their decisions in most of the cases yield results for the betterment of their entities. As Alfred Marshall (Principles of Economics-1890) mention in his theory that with leadership quality & understanding the market situation one most important factor to entrepreneurship is foresight, foresight on demand and supply changes and the willingness to act on such risky foresights, this unique quality of entrepreneurs is so unique that they excel in their field of business & yield results to the maximum benefits from the current market situation. As an entrepreneur he is entitled to understand the sociological aspect of the people around him & in the market he works as a social engineer in the society. As Max Weber (1864-1920) points out in his theory that social culture plays an important role in the development of Entrepreneurs. As Israel Kirzner (Theory of Entrepreneurship-1935) explains in his theory that spontaneous learning & alertness are the two major factors that make an entrepreneur. Harvey Leibenstein (1922-1994) understand & explain entrepreneurs as a gap-fillers so to say knowing the market in its overall situations & understanding the demand of customer fills the gaps of the market by implementing a new idea & entity to produce something to fill that existing gap. Peter Drucker (1909-2005) including other factors of entrepreneurs points out one major factor of it by saying creator of new values. To support this new value meet it with already existed raw materials. Thorough evaluation of these theories bring entrepreneurs to new light rather treating his as one who has transformed everything around him, it place him to reality background who understands the market & situation and bring something new in market with his foresightedness & ability to take risk on his conclusions. He can come up with any idea in any area of the society not in the well renowned field of businesses only.
Methodology
On primary level, numbers of case studies are done to understand the proper condition of objectives thoroughly. Questionnaires are developed to understand how different this tourism practices is in comparison to other working conditions & sectors. Samples are individuals from tourism industry & collage students passed out from different tourism institutions. Comparative data is taken from different other business groups & students of other streams. The research is a mixed study of quantitative & qualitative methods.
Case Study -1
An individual started his career in tourism as an auto-rickshaw driver in Varanasi. He had limited knowledge of any foreign language & limited educational background as well. For first few years of his career in tourism industry he spent his life as a practitioner & learner. Within few years he developed a cliental of his own with the way of service providing & goodwill developed with the tourists. He increased his career from an auto-rickshaw driver to an agent of few special clients that he got & could deal with. In these years the client that came again & references that came to the city he provided them transportation facilities & few times accommodations as well. In coming years only he started his own travel agency leaving the tag of an agent only. After two years of his career as a travel agent he opened his own hotel a property of 15 plus room in the same city. Currently he is dealing with the clients coming through travel agency, selling rooms as an independent owner of a hotel as well.
Case Study-2
A student of a reputed travel institution started his career in tourism industry as an employee of a travel agency in a metro. First few years of his career he worked for his company & partially developed his business as well with the network he built. As the business is providing services to the client & of network that one build with the foreign clients & foreign agents he could garner them as his own client providing much more personalized services. He accumulated fair amount of money with his practices in tourism industry with the selling of packages for his company & individual packages that he sold through his personal network. After three years of work in tourism industry in the metro he accumulated enough money to start his own business as a full fledge travel agent. Within a year he shifted to his home town after being a travel agent & built a resort their & started his travel business as a niche service provider in his home town.
There are numbers of case studies done but when we discuss about all these case studies not mentioned here shows partial entrepreneurship in people engaged in tourism practices. Most of them work simultaneously for their own business at the same time for their employers as well. In due course of time they start their own business entity summing up all existing resources with a new tourism product. Factors that came out through these case studies are:-
• Most of tourism practitioners start as a partial entrepreneur
• They chiefly rely initially on their employers to understand the business of tourism
• Either they start their entities in vicinity of the same tourism products or in other cases put a new product in the market as a pioneer
• Services that augment tourism experiences to a different level many a times they move to that part & provide out of the box ideas to meet it
• Most of the practitioners prefer if a chance provided & situation suits, to start their business in their home town or areas those they have lived earlier with local participations
• Clubbing of services are so important that they not only work with their employers but club other resources of the company to produce a new product & give chance for others to be entrepreneurs as well
• They start their businesses most of the time as a community product designed or produced with certain communities.
• Local participations of home town provide technical hands of marginal works at the home destination for these entrepreneurs.
As summing up the outcomes of the case studies & statistical data collected from different sources we come up to the conclusion that tourism practices as a whole produce numbers of entrepreneurs in different categories of services augmentation in the same market at the same time it brings new entrepreneurs in other geographical locations most of the time home towns of these entrepreneurs in numbers so create a whole new region for tourism activities. In number of cases tourism practices produce new entrepreneurs from low income group from tourism business by on ground networks of these low-income group entrepreneurs. Students of remote locations who study tourism after working in tourism industry for few years if provided few financial aids by different institutions moreover infrastructural development is done in his home town tends to open his own business there. VFR (Visiting Friends & Relatives) is so common among these entrepreneurs at their home town that create environment for tourism business there at the same time besides engaging accommodation part create other revenue at the remote locations. Tourism practitioners get lots of technical advantages while working in tourism industry for future business development to work as tourism entrepreneurs. In many cases these new group of tourism practitioners either develop hold on one segment of the market or club numbers of different services under one roof to provide better tourism services to tourists. Current tourism education provides limited future opportunities to theses students & they grab technicality while working in tourism industry. But few of the changes done in course curriculum of tourism studies can create wonder for these future entrepreneurs. To point some inclusion of entrepreneurship in curriculum, focus on banking & financial services, in-house travel agency training at institution level, focus on studies of all other important subjects of different nature, better time given to on-field studies rather class room teaching etc.
Conclusion
Entrepreneurship is a different base on which a particular country can make a great nation. It’s more like a way of living rather than building a business only for few selected ones benefits. When a sense of cohesion or engagements develop among the practitioners of any practice to produce something new or start the same thing with new colours it helps more than a business started by few individuals for harnessing a particular area or market, harnessing resources to the maximum & many a times destroying & polluting the whole area itself. Tourism being in parity with the limited utilization of the resources & many a times work in collaboration with the nature itself can answer many a dire questions raised in this new era of modernity & globalization.
Acknowledgement
This research paper is the result of numerous hardworking and dedicated individuals. The author would like to thank all the individuals from tourism & other industries who extended their continuous support during the present study. Their enthusiasm and interest towards a new branch of business knowledge is the basis of this study. In addition, sincere thanks go to all of the hotel owners, tourists and government officials who consented to interviews in the process of this research.
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To be Continued...
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