Recreation and Tourism

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https://hdl.handle.net/10530/418

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Browsing Recreation and Tourism by Subject "Business operations"

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    Gender nuances in tourism business operations: a South African perspective
    (University of Zululand, 2020) Nzama, Nompumelelo
    Tourism is earmarked as the fastest growing industry, which opens opportunities for business development and growth. As a buoyant income-generating sector of any nation, many entrepreneurs have also keyed into tourism. Previous studies have shown that the number of women entrepreneurs is increasing, however, many of them fail to sustain their businesses compared to men who own businesses. This research therefore explored gender nuances in tourism business operation that may have a significant impact on business performance. The researcher used questionnaire survey, a quantitative research method to collect data from 150 tourism-related business owners and managers in Durban Central Business District, KwaZulu-Natal using purposive sampling method. The participants were those who have specific knowledge in tourism-related business operations (managers and owners) and are willing to participate. Data was analysed using IBM’s SPSS version 25 software. Descriptive (frequency, mean), bivariate (Spearman’s Rank Correlation (two-tailed) test, Pearson’s ChiSquare test, Mann-Whitney U test) and multivariate (Reliability test using Cronbach’s Alpha) data analyses were applied in this study. This study did not make a conclusive finding that gender or any other demographic characteristics play a very strong role in differentiating business success or performance, as mostly perceived. The conclusive finding in this study points to the strong role that developing marketing capability plays on business success irrespective of gender or any other demographic characteristics. This study, therefore, relabelled the initially proposed conceptual framework that guided this study as a "perceived" model of Gender nuances in tourism business operations. This study did not validate the initial model as the reality in the business world. There is a difference here between what people perceive and what takes place in reality. Some of the recommendations provided by this study are that there should be entrepreneurial networks that mainly focus on women entrepreneurs to create a women-friendly businessrelated network. In addition, the promotion of entrepreneurial workshops and training to enhance business management skills is suggested.
University of Zululand