Entrepreneurship education in tourism: An investigation among European Universities

It is widely recognized that entrepreneurs are key drivers of economic development, and as such, nurturing an entrepreneurial mindset in young people has become a key priority for innovation. Entrepreneurship education (EE) has emerged as a key instrument to enhance entrepreneurial orientation. A growing number of curricula and programs devoted to entrepreneurship are registered in all levels and fields of education. Likewise, the tourism education sector recently has started to offer entrepreneurship education through dedicated modules or courses. However, despite the growing attention and relevance of EE in tourism, to our best knowledge, this field of research remains under-investigated. This paper aims to contribute to closing this gap by analyzing, though a web-based content analysis, the situation of European university initiatives that have begun including modules and contents related to entrepreneurship in their tourism educational programs. In particular, the paper seeks to analyse how the main components related to EE are being structured in these tourism education programs and offer advice on what might constitute an effective tourism entrepreneurship education path.