Entrepreneurship and Small-Medium Enterprises impact on the Egyptian Tourism Industry

The tourism industry in Egypt is one of the most important sectors in terms of its contribution to the economic growth of the country. For the past years, Egypt’s economy and tourism witnessed a sharp decline that affected all economic sectors in the country. However, it started to recover during the past period according to economic and governmental statistics. The Egyptian tourism industry is characterized by fragmented business activity. In fact, a considerable percentage of the tourism industry activity is dominated by small- medium enterprises (SMEs). Moreover, entrepreneurship prevails in all the economic sectors and all the types of organizations, but the industry and the activity of SMEs are particularly the main domain where entrepreneurship is essential for economic growth and job creation. Additionally, the concept of entrepreneurship has attracted more attention worldwide for the past few years; due to the fact that it is not only vital for a healthy economy, but is also critical for sustaining prosperity and creating new jobs. The aim of this research paper is to analyze the development trends of entrepreneurship related to small and medium enterprises in the tourist industry of Egypt and to find out how entrepreneurship in SMEs plays a relevant role in the development of economic growth in Egypt generally, with emphasis on its impact on tourism, specifically, as one of the major growing industries in the world.