Immigrant Entrepreneurs and Their New Firms in the Tourism Sector: Analysis of the Knowledge Construction from Experience

In mature tourist destinations, maintaining competitiveness is challenging due to issues such as lack of innovation and unappealing tourism offerings. Immigrant entrepreneurs in the tourism sector can introduce innovation and destination differentiation to counter these challenges, although little is known about their pathways to entrepreneurship. Some immigrants start with limited work experience, while others accumulate prior knowledge from their jobs as employees or even as managers or entrepreneurs. Their experience spans periods within and outside the tourism sector, in both their home and host countries. This study aims to analyse the professional development of immigrant entrepreneurs prior to creating their new businesses in order to observe the sources of experience that shape their entrepreneurial knowledge. The data were drawn from a survey of 107 immigrant entrepreneurs in the food and beverage sector in selected tourist areas of the Canary Islands. A cluster analysis of the different experiences in the professional development of immigrant entrepreneurs results in the existence of two groups with different characteristics: those with experience as tourism employees and those with experience as non-tourism managers. These results enhance the academic knowledge about immigrant entrepreneurs’ professional development in the tourism industry, and contribute to achieving several Sustainable Development Goals.