Tourism entrepreneurship: the contours of challenges faced by female-owned BnBs and Guesthouses in Mthatha, South Africa.

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to investigate and discover the facts about the challenges of female entrepreneurs who are the owners of bed and breakfasts and guesthouses in Mthatha, and to find out whether these challenges have an impact in their business performance. By way of using a semistructured survey, women who own guesthouses and bed and breakfast establishments were targeted by way of a purposive snowball sampling technique. The primary data collected indicated that femaleentrepreneurs in Mthatha face a number of challenges including limited access to finance, seasonality, balancing work and family life, corruption/bribery, poor infrastructure, inability to attend seminars and workshops to network, poor customer service and lack of awareness to the required training/skills to function effectively. However, such women remain resilient to the aforementioned challenges, largely motivated by such factors linked to flexibility, the quest to remain independent and the belief in the opportunity and financial incentives that their operation represents. This study has implications for entrepreneurship and economic growth in South Africa and how vulnerable businesses including women’s require continuous support from government and private sector to remain competitive and economically sustainable.

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