Entrepreneurship in tourism industry: evidence of business dynamics in Portugal

Abstract

Entrepreneurship and the creation of new businesses are crucial to economic growth and competitiveness of the countries. The entrepreneurship indicators such as the rate of entry of new companies and entry density, are related to GDP per capita and the financial development of the countries. The tourism sector, for its cross-cutting, is a driver of economic growth, and regional development. The growing importance of the tourism sector in the economy of Portugal reveals crucial scan your business tissue and understand their input and output patterns. This study aims to highlight the dynamic business in Portuguese tourism sector in last decade. Analysing the various segments of economic activity that constitute the sector of tourism (Accommodation and catering; Transport and logistics; Recreational and Cultural Activities) we find that they have different patterns in terms of growth rates, maturities and business concentration ratio. This specificity of the tourism sector is also verified in the analysis of the entry and exit by segments. In fact in Recreational and Cultural Activities the turbulence rate is quite high, unlike Transport and Logistics, characterized by a reduced rate of turbulence due to its high concentration ratio.