Tourism Geographies, Vol.1, No.2, pp. 164-182 (return to Table of Contents for Vol.1)

The Ecology of Organisations in Danish Tourism: A Regional Labour Perspective

Anne-Mette Hjalager
Department of Organization and Management, Aarhus School of Business, Denmark

Abstract:

Tourism is often claimed to be a major employment-creator and a viable path to development in rural areas. With the exception of the most sparsely populated areas, this is supported by Danish data for the overall growth in the number of enterprises and jobs, covering the period 1981-94. The paper demonstrates and discusses the dynamics of regional tourism development in terms of the establishment, survival and mortality of restaurants and accommodation facilities. This study of the ecology of organisations unveils considerable firm-level turbulence, that is, there are considerable numbers of firm entries as well as exits. Stability tends to correlate positively with urbanisation. In addition, the higher stability of enterprises in urban areas results in qualitatively different types of employment but, surprisingly, the size and age of the organisation rather than managerial capacity or the availability of trained personnel seem to determine the chances of survival.

Keywords: Organizational ecology, Restaurants, Accommodations, Business development, Regional development