Tour­ism So­cial Entrepreneur­ship and Sustain­ability

Course content

This course aims at providing students with the appropriate conceptual frameworks and knowledge to reflect critically on how tourism businesses can contribute to sustainable development through social entrepreneurship.

The UN Development Programme states that development is "The expansion of people’s freedoms to live long, healthy and creative lives; to advance goals they have reason to value, and to engage actively in shaping development equitably and sustainably on a shared planet. People are both the beneficiaries and the drivers of human development, as individuals and in groups". Social entrepreneurship, in turn, is "motivated primarily by social benefit to address social problems or needs that are unmet by government and the private sector in a way that is generally congruent with market forces” (Brooks 2009, p. 177). Such businesses usually start small and local, but also grow to have global relevance, as we can see with the example of microfinance. 

This course focuses more specifically on how the tourism entrepreneur can act as a driver of development and sustainability. The course combines theoretical knowledge and case studies that can be used as inspiration and provide tools to be applied in developing a social enterprise business plan. The course will also include invited speakers who are involved in social enterprises. 

Topics addressed in this course are:

1. Entrepreneurship with a special focus on social entrepreneurship 
2. Sustainability and tourism development
3. Idea generation and social business plan development
4. Social innovation
5. Assessment of social value
6. Diversity Management and postcolonialism
7. Institutions and institutional entrepreneurship