Harmony through Entrepreneurship in Tourism (HET), restoring the balance between humanity and nature: towards a conceptual framework

Purpose – For years there has been an appalling crisis developing – that of the state of our planet. We are in a state of crisis: ‘a crisis of perception’ (HRH, 20202, p.6). Humanity has become disconnected from nature with devastating consequences. This paper puts forward a model for Harmony through Entrepreneurship in Tourism (HET) to encourage harmony restoration. It is proposed that developing entrepreneurial tourism in respect of these principles would enhance the sustainability of the industry as well as acting as a platform to educate those that engage with it. Tourist’s exposure to these principles may contribute to a wider societal shift in mindset achieving a more harmonious society and thus harmony restoration.
Design/approach –In the process of developing the framework, the authors considered the principles of Harmony to conclude the 7 HET principles.
Findings – In this conceptual viewpoint paper we draw upon the Harmony principles to provide a cohesive framework for restoring harmony through entrepreneurship in tourism. The premise of our framework is that for the tourism industry to become more regenerative and transformative, it requires the continuing contributions of the entrepreneurs involved (De Lange and Dodds, 2017; Kirby, 2020).
Originality/value – The suggested framework builds on the work of David Kirby (2020) and epitomises a step toward harmony restoration through tourism and entrepreneurship, thus contributing to future research seeking to explore a novel and an encircling approach to sustainability and tourism entrepreneurship. The paper provides a foundation for policy making with the aim of promoting harmonious entrepreneurship practices in the tourism field.