Touring Tourism Enterprising : Mundane Practices of Tourism Development

Abstract: Tourism enterprises play a vital role in tourism development. This has inspired scholarly and policy interest in the workings of tourism enterprises, particularly the small enterprises that account for the majority. The heterogeneity of small enterprises presents challenging terrain for scholars and policymakers concerned to understand and manage enterprise development and tourism development. Scholars have called for more research to deepen understanding of tourism enterprises and tourism development. The question is how to approach this complex terrain in research and practice.Recent lines of research suggest that answers may lay in the vicissitudes of practice. Entrepreneurship scholars have lately started to examine enterprises from the vantage of practice, the research concern shifting to the constructing action of enterprising. This vantage offers much promise to deepen understanding of tourism enterprises and tourism development. However, practice perspectives have rarely been used in studies of tourism enterprises and the link between enterprising practices and tourism development has not yet been made. Drawing inspiration from nascent practice perspectives lately emerging in entrepreneurship and tourism studies, this thesis takes up the practice modality of enterprising to explore the terrain of tourism enterprises and tourism development.Using a multimethod qualitative approach, the thesis tours sites of enterprising action to offer another view of tourism enterprises and tourism development. Visiting the enterprising action of innovating, constructing, performing, intervening, and reflecting, the tour sheds light on the everyday action of enterprising to unfold an image of mundane tourism development. Orienting to the vicissitudes of enterprising practice, this thesis provides another view of tourism enterprises and tourism development, opening new avenues for research and practice.Enterprising carries ontological, epistemological, and methodological implications for research. It urges for post-disciplinary research approaches characterised by theoretical and methodological diversity geared to producing practicable knowledge through close encounters with the vicissitudes of practice. Enterprising and mundane tourism development are travelling concepts with transformative potential – not conceptual destinations, but concepts to inspire further travel.