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Microentrepreneurs have played a role in the tourism industry for a long time; however, they are now becoming more visible and increasingly influential stakeholders due to information technologies that enable them to reach prospective visitors, and because their economic activity is more transparent and taxable by governments. Nevertheless, tourism microentrepreneurship is still understudied, and destination practitioners are largely unprepared to fuel microentrepreneurial development and to integrate these genuine, local experiences with the formal sector components of the industry. This chapter provides an introductory overview of related knowledge as a basis for identification of themes in research on tourism microentrepreneurship.

Permatourism is a holistic approach to the study and design of equitable tourism development strategies, which leverages adaptive complex systems thinking and permaculture design principles. Permatourism advocates for the symbiosis between the formal and informal sectors of the tourism system, through creating and nurturing meaningful, functional relations among multiple actors. The formal tourism sector must embrace the sociocultural characteristics of the host community and grassroots business development strategies must be pursued to align local microentrepreneurs with expected business opportunities generated by big tourism investments. This chapter provides an overview of the conceptual foundation of this new approach as well as examples illustrating its pertinence to destination stewardship.

Microentrepreneurship is emerging as a key area of tourism research due to its increasing visibility and economic significance. Microentrepreneurs have complex pecuniary and non-pecuniary motivations, they combine multiple forms of knowledge to achieve success, and they can generate circularity and competitiveness when integrated into formal destination systems. Continued research on this topic is needed, but careful consideration of the ethics and methods used is recommended. This chapter assembles findings in this volume and in the tourism literature to propose a roadmap for principled engagement with microentrepreneurs.

Farmers are increasingly diversifying their agribusinesses to adapt to new market opportunities, and for many, this has meant offering farm experiences to tourists. The purpose of this study was to examine the motivations and constraints of farm tourism microentrepreneurs in North Carolina, USA. Results from thematic analysis of interviews with 15 farmers suggest that microentrepreneurs are motivated by the flexibility to structure their time and to be outside. Farmers indicated that they are devoted to sharing their farming heritage and educate tourists about their work and community ethic. Microentrepreneurial success was defined as the ability to continue to hold on to farmland and barriers included illness, aging, and lack of support from public agencies.

Rural subaltern people are generally relegated to the role of passive tourees, allowed to informally glean bits of income not worthwhile to the formal tourism industry. However, under some circumstances, microentrepreneurs find ways to take advantage of opportunities afforded by tourism to improve their livelihoods and gain human agency. The People-First Tourism Lab employs a participatory action research methodology to investigate tourism microentrepreneurship and its effect on participating individuals and communities. In this chapter, the authors provide a background of the project implemented in the State of North Carolina, USA, explain the research methodology, and outline current and forthcoming efforts.

For many decades, destination marketing organizations have evolved in their structure and in their programming, especially as targeted toward leisure travel and tourism markets. They changed their focus to internet communication, then to brand strategy and destination management, and most recently to address disruptions from the tourism online gig economy consisting of myriad microentrepreneurs, some sharing local experiences directly with tourists. This chapter relates how Raleigh, USA, and its tourism office have begun to embrace tourism microentrepreneurship through strategic planning efforts and specific programs of the last five years. It concludes with implications for how small and medium destinations can structure new programs, policies, and interactions to support marketplaces of tourism microentrepreneurs as part of holistic tourism-related economic development.

Prior research documents that host communities struggle to influence tourism product design and destination management; however, emerging information and communication technologies (ICTs) are allowing host communities to bypass retail monopolies and create self-representation. This chapter examines how to make technological innovation endogenous to a regional growth model by identifying barriers constraining the adoption of innovation among rural microentrepreneurs in Pennsylvania. Insights about adoption of ICTs were gathered through participatory action engagement and semi-structured interviews with a network of rural tourism microentrepreneurs. Analysis revealed that microentrepreneurs perceive that tracking and monitoring customer inquiries is very time consuming, and they feel that using these platforms diverts them from achieving their desired lifestyles.

Indigenous entrepreneurship is not only driven by capitalistic ideas as inherent in Eurocentric microentrepreneurial thinking but also focuses on communal approaches where entire communities can gain social and/or economic benefits. The authors, who all worked at The University of the South Pacific in Fiji, share how they work and engage with students and indigenous communities involved in tourism microenterprises. Based on the authors' research and experience in the region, this chapter discusses the following two issues and their related best practices and implications. First, the balance and sometimes tensions between entrepreneurial self-benefit and benefit-sharing; and second, female participation and the related opportunities for empowerment of indigenous communities through tourism microentrepreneurship.