Street Entrepreneurship in Beach Tourism Destinations: An Empirical Study

Abstract

This study examines the influence of street entrepreneurs' selling skills on tourists' purchase intention in beach tourism context. Selling various oceanic products is a majour source of livelihood for many of the host populations in beach destinations. Even though most of them are in the bottom of the pyramid, they possess enormous entrepreneurial potential. Such selling skills is one of the triggering factors for the purchase intention of tourists. Upgrading such entrepreneurial skills can effectively reduce unemployment, alleviate poverty and boost economic growth. But existing beach tourism literature rarely addressed this aspect, which is the motive behind the present study. The selling skills of vendors are measured in three dimensions: interpersonal skills, salesmanship skills, and technical skills. The primary data was collected from 200 tourists who have visited Fort Kochi Beach in South India. The sampling method was purposive and inferential statistics were used to derive results. The study's findings have enormous implications by attracting the attention of policymakers to formulate skill enhancement schemes for micro-entrepreneurs in the beach destinations.