Developing innovation practices of nature tourism entrepreneurs

Innovation programmes support rural and nature-based tourism entrepreneurs in revitalising areas affected by recession. However, scant research exists on the outcomes of such schemes. This article presents a case study examining how an innovation programme aimed at nature tourism entrepreneurs led to new innovation practices. The analysis relies on practice theory, suggesting that constellations of entrepreneurial motives, resources, expertise, and contexts explain the uptake of innovation practices. It shows how the programme strengthened existing bricolage, intuition, and network-based practices, as well as small-step innovations, by improving reflexive thinking, social networks, a local narrative, and embeddedness in the destination. The development of strategy-based innovation practices and more significant innovations was less evident. This requires the development of new constellations of entrepreneurial motives, resources, expertise, and contexts, and thus more holistic innovation support schemes. By applying practice theory, the article advances tourism innovation research, provides new insights into the benefits of tourism innovation programmes, explores tourism entrepreneurs’ innovation practices, and complements existing practice-based tourism research.