Tourism Entrepreneurship in Portugal and Spain (eBook)

This contributed volume introduces the innovative landscapes and business models used in tourism entrepreneurship initiatives of Portugal and Spain. It provides benchmarks for entrepreneurial initiatives covering tourism services, place-branded tourism, social networks, spiritual tourism, cross-border tourism initiatives, and tourism in low-density regions. It also provides guidelines for future strategic actions to foster rural and sustainable development in alternative tourism destinations, following the Iberian experience.

João Leitão is an associate professor with habilitation, the director of the UBIExecutive, Business school at the University of Beira Interior (UBI) (Portugal), and a research fellow at the NECE Research Center in Business Sciences at UBI, and associate researcher at the ICS, Instituto de Ciências Sociais, University of Lisbon. He is an external research fellow of the Center for Young and Family Enterprise (CYFE), Università Degli Studi di Bergamo, Italy. He has a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Beira Interior (UBI) and a habilitation in technological change and entrepreneurship from the University of Lisbon (Portugal). He is a prolific author and series editor of the Springer book series Studies in Entrepreneurship, Structural Change, and Industrial Dynamics. He is also a member of the editorial boards of several journals such as Sustainability ( MDPI), The International Review on Public and Nonprofit Marketing (Springer), Revista Portuguesa de Estudos Regionais (APDR), Discover Sustainability (Springer), and International Journal of Entrepreneurial Venturing (Inderscience).

Vanessa Ratten is an Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at La Trobe University (Australia). She is the Program Director of the Entrepreneurship and Innovation subjects and teaches Corporate Venturing and Managing Innovation. She has published seven sole authored books including Sport Entrepreneurship: Developing and Sustaining an Entrepreneurial Sports Culture (Springer). She has also edited more than twenty books including Entrepreneurship and the Community: A Multidisciplinary Perspective on Creativity, Social Challenges, and Business (Springer).

Vitor Braga is an Associate Professor at the School of Technology and Management of Felgueiras, Polytechnic Institute of Porto (Portugal). He is the Director of the Business Sciences BSc, the Head of the business sciences department, and the Director of the MSc in International Management. His main research interests are in entrepreneurship processes such as co-operation, internationalization and innovation.