Abstract:

This developmental paper examines why formal support infrastructure for sustainable tourism in Ghana does not consistently translate into enabling conditions for entrepreneurial action. Focusing on policy, finance, and culture, it uses the entrepreneurial ecosystem perspective to explore how selected ecosystem conditions shape sustainable tourism entrepreneurship in practice. Initial secondary analysis suggests that Ghana has a visible architecture of tourism and entrepreneurship support, but its effects are weakened by uneven policy implementation, difficult access to affordable finance, and cultural norms that both sustain and constrain entrepreneurial behaviour. Together, these conditions appear to push many tourism firms towards incremental, low-risk, and survival-oriented strategies rather than more exploratory sustainability-oriented innovation. The paper argues that the key issue is not the complete absence of support, but the gap between support in form and support in function. The next stage of the study will use semi-structured interviews with tourism entrepreneurs and ecosystem stakeholders in Ghana to test and extend these secondary findings.

Please choose your submission type: Developmental Paper

Primary Track: Tourism and Hospitality Experience Management

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Dr. Esther Mensah