- A new way to approach tourism development and innovation is to focus on the individual and mundane aspect, says Stuart Reid, who recently defended his doctoral dissertation in service studies.
How do tourism enterprises practically happen? This has been the main research question for Stuart Reid, who has studied small tourism enterprises in Sweden and Australia, such as breweries, shops and tourist attractions. With the study, he aims to give researchers and policy makers new understandings on how to work with development in tourism.
- Research on tourism development is nothing new, but the focus has rarely been on practical issues. If we look at how enterprising is “done”, we can find new possibilities for tourism and gain insights on what measures are suitable for achieving business and industry development.
Something that Stuart Reid emphasizes in his work is the importance of personal learning when it comes to enterprisers not only renewing their businesses, but also themselves. Here, the practical perspective can be a guide when it comes to different types of support for enterprises.
- Running an enterprise is complex and none of them are alike. We should not assume things in advance, such as that it is necessarily only a matter of doing a commercial enterprise. In fact, it can also be a matter of fulfilling personal interests or having time for the family. This means that tourism destination development and business support policy may need to consider wider needs than business alone.
Read more and download the thesis: Touring Tourism Enterprising: Mundane Practices of Tourism Development
Contact: stuart [dot] reid [at] ism [dot] lu [dot] se
