From Tourist to Tourism Entrepreneur, from Consumption to Production: Evidence from Cornwall, England

There has been little research on the social and cultural aspects of tourism entrepreneurship. In this paper the social routes to tourism entrepreneurship are investigated, with emphasis on two major channels—those of the ex-employer and the ex-employee. Data are reported from a case study of Cornwall where 411 firms were interviewed as part of a stratified sample, representing different local economic environments and different sectors of tourism. An analysis of previous occupational experience and of access to capital only provides a partial explanation of entrepreneurship in Cornish tourism. Further analysis of business motivations and of migration patterns reveals an important dimension of noneconomic decisionmaking. This raises questions as to whether tourism entrepreneurship can be seen as a form of consumption rather than production and to its relationship with the entrepreneurial middle class as a whole.