Digital Entrepreneurship in Tourism and Hospitality Sector: Lessons from the Global South

Abstract

Recently, the COVID-19 pandemic has intensified the interests of scholars and researchers in digital entrepreneurship across all sectors of the economy. As such, the tourism and hospitality sector is not an exception. The essence of high penetration of technology has been hailed for transforming the experience of tourists across the globe. Consequently, it appears that digital technology adoption in the tourism and hospitality sector can be fertile ground for digital entrepreneurship. Although concepts like digital innovation, disruptive adaptations, and digital transformation have received much attention, digital entrepreneurship has received little attention when it comes to tourism and hospitality discourse. To make matters worse, the current digital entrepreneurship is fragmented and scattered. In line with these literature gaps, the current study aims to establish the role of digital entrepreneurship in the tourism and hospitality sector in the global south. To address the main aim of the study, a structured literature review methodology is adopted whereby literature sources from the Scopus database, Google Scholar, and other grey sources are used. More interestingly, reflexive thematic analysis was used to analyze the collected data. The results revealed that digital entrepreneurship in the tourism and hospitality sector helps to ensure deeper segmentation, promote the development of innovative tourism products and services, augment tourist experiences, ensure data-oriented decisions, promote inclusive tourism, create job opportunities, promote sustainable tourism development and growth, and offer a competitive advantage. This study has theoretical and practical implications.