Search results

Rebuilding communities in economically struggling places might mean taking steps to combat poverty and promote economic growth. This can entail boosting employment prospects, promoting small-town enterprises, and enhancing access to health care and education. The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant and all-encompassing influence on economy around the world. In order to craft a convincing case for the critical role that microfinance plays in promoting the expansion of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and, as a result, helping to rebuild communities and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the author has used a thorough literature-based methodology in this chapter. This is an opinion-based chapter. In order to discover recurring themes and patterns connected to microfinance, SME development, and SDGs, the author has rigorously analyzed and integrated the data and insights offered in various sources. The presented thoughts and policy suggestions are built upon the findings of this literature research.

This chapter investigates the concept and relationship between community pride, involvement, and participation needs in the sustainable tourism development. The study will also try to find out how local communities are involved in various activities and practices for the development of the sustainable tourism. Local community participation in tourism activities has become one of the major principles of sustainable tourism. As tourism is a people-oriented industry, its major functions depend on human resources. A significant number of communities depend on tourism as a primary source of income. Tourism contributes to the growth of a community because it creates a lot of jobs in the various industries associated with tourism.

Tourism is considered to be one of the fastest growing industries with huge potential for economic development and economic reform, especially in developing countries. It directly contributes in the economy not only by earning foreign exchange but also makes a direct contribution through multiplier effect. Diversified tourism methods that promote employment opportunities and business practices provide new innovations and methods to meet the diverse needs of tourists in domestic and international markets. The contribution of women in the global business world has increased in recent years, especially in the hospitality and tourism industry. Their contributions are not only restricted as employees but also equally in business and entrepreneurship. These women have become major actors in the tourism entrepreneurial arena despite facing inequality in a perceived male-dominated environment. In the tourism industry, the proportion of women working in the industry is high, but their roles are mainly engaged in unskilled, low-paid jobs. This chapter will emphasize the opportunities for women in the tourism industry. A brief discussion on the various challenges women face, mainly in terms of a lack of appropriate training and education within the tourism industry sector that might adequately support their business ventures, as well as in relation to lacking sufficient access to finance for their business(es), is provided in this chapter. Significant and rapid measures are needed to support the tourism industry; henceforth, this chapter will also focus on the significant policies and strategies adopted by government and private players to change the role of women in this industry.

All around the world, the tourism sector was hard hit by the pandemic. Many nations across the world are majorly dependent on tourism for their gross earnings. It is the backbone of service sector and has a great potential to boost entrepreneurial and related industries. The employment generation through this sector can be enormous if proper emphasis is laid on the factors inducing entrepreneurship, like conducive start-up policies, supportive government initiatives, and adequate financial support to the budding entrepreneurs along with development of financial and societal support systems. Across the globe, many communities suffered due to pandemic and the problems associated with that. Entrepreneurship is regarded as key to business innovation and development of economies. Thereby, in order to plan for resilience strategies, it is very important to understand the peculiarities of entrepreneurial ecosystem. It becomes necessary to understand and strategize the growth of entrepreneurial ecosystem to rebuild communities. This chapter highlights the relationships between entrepreneurial ecosystems and tourism sector for the growth of economy. The major finding is that without entrepreneurial growth, no economy or no sector can revive from crises. Therefore, it is necessary to focus on building effective strategies to support the stakeholders of the entrepreneurial ecosystems so as to promote growth and revive from the damage caused by pandemic.

The chapter aims to identify the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the overtourism with two intermediate forms of tourism (i.e. mass tourism and alternative tourism while representing the potential of alternative tourism). For this, secondary research was adopted in which secondary data were collected through an inclusive literature review. This review consists of tourism journals, newspaper articles, blogs, World Health Organization statistics, governmental data and website materials. In early 2020, the rapidly spreading Covid-19 (coronavirus) pandemic has wreaked global disaster. With no vaccine and limited medical capacity to treat the disease is a big challenge to the world. International, national and regional travel restrictions immediately affected the tourism industry. Even war, economic downturn, terrorist attack and various other diseases are all futile to cause an absolute decline in overall (international and domestic) tourism like Covid-19. This virus has enormous impacts on the tourism industry as the most crowded tourist destinations or overtourism in the world are deserted due to shut borders, no domestic or international flights or transport systems, and mix up to deal with the biggest impact in the history of the world – Covid-19. Overtourism means an extreme number of tourists at a specific destination at a particular point of time, or the excessive spread of people at various tourist spots has led to a situation known as overtourism. Due to Covid-19, the economic consequences on many destinations will be harsh, but some destinations suffering from overtourism might feel short-term relief, but it is a big hit in the long run. Overtourism will take a back seat during the crisis. Now post-Covid-19, people will be very particular while choosing their holiday destinations; likewise, there will be a shift from mass tourism to alternative tourism. Only a few people will wish a return to overtourism.

Green labeling and green scapes are generally associated with environmental practices known as eco-labeling. In the hospitality industry, the concept of green scapes and green labeling has been associated through the attraction of customers toward hospitality organization's brand mark. Green practices make a customer conscious and more tangible for a brand or product. Somewhere, green practices have the instinct to throw as an open-up strategy for futurism growth and to build the brand mark at the next market step of the industry. The determination of green practices of a hospitality organization is performed by the environment working employees (Villemereuil & Gaggiotti, 2015). The organization is advantageous only when the in-house environment is attractive. Green scapes are performed only on the criteria of key certification. The viewpoint of this chapter is to fulfill the criteria of green practices (Warren et al., 2008), attracting brand marks in the hospitality organizations of UT regions. This chapter will investigate the perceptions of industrial employees attracting the brand mark of any hospitality organization in UT states. This chapter will highlight the impact of B2B and B2C businesses connecting to the working environment toward attracting the brand mark of hospitality organizations in the UT states region. This chapter will be paying heed to discuss the enhancing effect of B2B businesses in the UT states market of the tourism and hospitality sector. The sample collected for this chapter using closed ended questionnaire from hospitality organization or hotels in UT destination.

Riverston, Sri Lanka, is famous for its natural and cultural significance. The tourism industry is emerging there and expanding with more community engagement. Riverston being a community-based tourism site, this study aimed at discovering the perception of the Riverston community on tourism development further focusing on the market opportunities, challenges, and strategies for the way forward. Data were collected from the Riverston area community who engage in tourism through in-depth interviews with semi-structured questions, and the sample was selected based on the purposive sampling technique. Data were analyzed through content analysis. The findings disclosed that challenging the authentic culture, traditional livelihood shifting toward tourism, lack of awareness and knowledge of the tourism industry among the community, the impact of legal restrictions on the community, and lack of education are the sociocultural challenges for the community on tourism development. The Riverston area is getting developed in terms of infrastructure with tourism development, and that benefits the living conditions of the community. Further, results indicated forest conversation policies had impacted the community’s living in high magnitude. It persuades people to move away from agriculture to the tourism sector. In addition, the timely need for a well-planned sustainable tourism approach and awareness from ground-level tourism practitioners was underscored by the data set.

India is the place of many religions, customs and traditions. Religious events are regularly an exceptional tourist opportunity, and there are several religious events that take place in India throughout the year. These events not only focus on the importance of people engaging in religious events and having spiritual experience but also act as a promotional opportunity for any country. With changing times, these religious places have become a site for tourism; relatively a mere pilgrimage and digital marketing is especially useful in promoting these events and places to new potential attendees as well. Therefore, this research stresses upon the small- and medium-sized religious events that take place in various regions of India and the importance of digital marketing in sustaining and promoting the event tourism.

This chapter delves into the enhancement of the tourism industry through strategic entrepreneurship (SE) and digital transformation. The potential of these methodologies in revolutionizing tourism development and management is emphasized. The Fourth Industrial Revolution, characterized by technologies such as the Internet of Things, big data, artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing, augmented and virtual reality, and 3D printing, has permeated various sectors including governance and commerce.

This paradigm shift has also seeped into tourism, dubbed as Tourism 4.0 by Korze (2019). As highlighted by Peceny et al. (2019), the infusion of critical communication and information technologies, particularly augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), into the tourism sector can provide tourists with vivid previews or simulations of attractions. Such immersive experiences can influence travel decisions.

There's an evident rise in the integration of the Fourth Industrial Revolution's technologies in tourism. A prominent example is the adoption of these innovations in digital marketing strategies, especially on social media platforms (Zeng & Gerritsen, 2014; Leung et al., 2013). Given the profound impact of digital tech in molding a network-driven consumer behavior (Rogers, 2016), it becomes imperative for the tourism sector to undergo a comprehensive digital metamorphosis, paying heed to value chains and systems (Ismail et al., 2017).

Furthermore, the importance of SE cannot be overlooked (Ireland et al., 2003; Ireland & Webb 2007). It encapsulates an entity's prowess in seizing opportunities with apt strategies, ensuring the tourism industry remains resilient and thriving.