Entrepreneurship, chaos and the tourism area lifecycle

Entrepreneurship is a critical factor in tourism development, both globally and regionally. However, inadequate methodological tools have impeded its study. Chaos and complexity theory provides a valuable perspective to destination development research especially when combined with the Tourism Area Lifecycle Model. The synthesis creates a framework that takes into account different types of entrepreneurial activity while highlighting elements of turbulence, change, and, unpredictability. This paper provides an example of the development of two Australian destinations, illustrating how entrepreneurs took advantage of chaos and turbulence, and applied their creativity in a manner that gave one destination a competitive advantage over the other.