Hospitality Business: A New Space for Small Entrepreneurs

Abstract

Hospitality business or tourism IS a part of tertiary sector activities, and according to conventional theories on economic development, its growth becomes automatic at higher levels of development. However, now the whole approach towards it needs to be reconsidered in the light of the unexpected expansion of the tertiary sector, which goes against the expected pattern of structural transformation. India, like any other late entrants into the process of modernization, has been experiencing spurt in tertiary sector activities and that too in its informal segment. But it does not mean that the ongoing process of tertiary sector expansion is completely free from state mediation. On the other hand, even prior to the liberalization of the nineties, hospitality business was given the status of industry. Now a neat relation is established between tourism industry and earning of foreign exchange. Hence with the initiation of liberalisation process a number of programmes have been initiated to develop tourism industry. But all this hue and cry is a part of formal business and it does not take into account a number of activities which are very much part of hospitality business. Activities such as providing transportation facilities to the tourists, conducting package tours on small scale, providing board and lodging facilities at their residential houses and so on are a part of informal hospitality business. In this paper I am going to look into the informal hospitality arrangements extended by the locals of hampi, either by sparing one or two rooms of their residential houses or by constructing additional rooms or floors, which have implications for the development of small entrepreneurs. The paper is split into two parts - the main part and the subsidiary part. The main part, among other things, presents the objectives, the method and other aspects of the study; and it also explains the entrepreneurial process, social and cultural aspects of hospitality business. In the concluding part, based on the study, an attempt is made to draw some tentative inferences, which have bearing on the theory and practice of entrepreneurship. The subsidiary part has two sections: the first part discusses a few case studies; and the second one gives statistical information.