Entrepreneurial Motivation and Destination Evolution

This study aims to understand the small tourism business owner’s entrepreneurial motivation in different stages of destination development. Using a qualitative approach, 46 entrepreneurs who owned guesthouses in the Old Town of Lijiang, China, were interviewed. The findings suggest that business orientation was dominant in the predevelopment stage and that the livelihood motivation was a main cause of business orientation, whereas lifestyle orientation was obvious in the early development stage and most of the lifestyle-oriented owners had been tourists who enjoyed the place. However, the percentage of business orientation increased when the tourism area entered into a rapid growth stage, as more entrepreneurial investments were established. Therefore, this study identifies a pattern of small tourism business owners’ entrepreneurial motivation in different stages of destination development. An interactive view that connects tourism entrepreneurship and destination evolution is applied.