Rural entrepreneurship success factors for sustainable tourism ventures: Evidence from the Wild Coast

Rural entrepreneurship has emerged as a significant focus and is widely recognised as a crucial contributor to the tourism sector and overall economic development of the Wild Coast in South Africa. Rural entrepreneurial ventures frequently function in unstable and resource-limited contexts, rendering them susceptible to various factors that may impede their sustainability. This study aimed to examine the success factors affecting the sustainability of rural tourism entrepreneurs in the Wild Coast region of the Eastern Cape province, South Africa. This study employed a descriptive research design and quantitative methodology. Additionally, inferential statistics were utilised to derive descriptive statistics from a sample of 310 tourism ventures, enabling inferences about population parameters via correlation analysis. A systematic random sampling technique was employed to select a sample of business respondents from the Wild Coast in the context of rural tourism entrepreneurship. The research findings indicate a significant correlation among skills development, motivations for entrepreneurship, business challenges, and strategic and management knowledge as critical success factors for rural enterprises. This study contributes to the under-explored domain of success factors influencing rural tourism entrepreneurs. This study identifies success factors for rural entrepreneurs and advocates for ongoing efforts and interventions to optimise their utilisation. This study significantly enhances the understanding of the impact of specific variables on the performance of SMTEs. This is especially important in the Eastern Cape Province, where there is a lack of research examining the factors that contribute to the sustainable success of rural tourism entrepreneurs. Key Words:rural entrepreneurship, small to medium tourism enterprises, success factors