Learning from innovation failure in tourism - five most common pitfalls

Through in-depth interviews the EU INNOVATE research project has highlighted multiple types of risks that innovative entrepreneurs in tourism could not overcome, and critical events and factors at different stages. Critical factors are: financial (persistent financial under-performance and impossibility to secure private investment), customer-related factors (lack of market credibility and trust, lack of understanding of the value proposal, insufficient funding for innovation diffusion, etc.) and insufficient knowledge (of the tourism sector or innovation/managerial key skills).

Some of these issues have been summarized in a video format to reach a wider audience of practitioners and policy makers. The aim of this video is to highlight in an accessible and humorous way the most common critical mistakes and factors reported by real-life entrepreneurs participating in the research, mistakes either leading to failure or making the process more difficult. With this video, the researchers aim to disseminate their research findings and reach current and potential entrepreneurs to remind them about the importance of a proactive and active management of common potential risks. The video also brings teaching opportunities to academics lecturing entrepreneurship and innovation in tourism in order to attract their students’ interest and shape their future careers as potential entrepreneurs.