| Many small businesses catering to ecotourists needs have emerged in response to an increasingly important ecotourism sector. Ecotourism businesses are usually run by their owners who often have little business experience in tourism ventures. The high turnover rate for new ecotourism businesses reduces the benefits to owners, communities, and tourists alike. Understanding how ecotourism supply works is fundamental to improve entrepreneurs' chances of succeeding in business, which in turn helps host communities benefit from this development strategy. The objective of this study was to identify and analyze the elements affecting ecotourism supplier success. Data were collected through key informant face-to-face interviews of stakeholders associated with the ecotourism sector in Maryland and Pennsylvania. The key informants were business owners, tour operators and outfitters, state and local government and tourism promotion agency personnel, natural resource managers working on public lands, and leaders of conservation organizations. A total of 45 interviews were conducted. Data were integrated and analyzed under a qualitative research approach using QSR NUD*IST (Qualitative Solutions and Research, Nonnumerical Unstructured Data-Indexing, Searching and Theorizing), a computer based tool for content analyzing data. A conceptual model was developed and tested through content analysis using a-priori categories and a mechanical search approach. Results from this analysis showed that ecotourism supplier success is affected by factors related to Business Aspects, The Owner, Host Communities, Organizations, Environment, and Government. However, upon further analysis this model was improved by relaxing its assumptions and allowing categories to emerge from the data. Results from this second analysis showed that Ecotourism Supplier Success depends upon Enterprise and Agency factors. Factors unique to enterprises or agencies were associated with Self-Awareness, those common to both were identified with Legal, Financial, and Marketing, and factors related to (but not a part of) them included Host Community, Networks, and Barriers. Overall, the new framework derived through the latter analysis better reflects the factors affecting ecotourism supplier success because categories emerged from the data and were based on a more comprehensive analysis of the data. |
