Determining the specific support services required by female entrepreneurs in the South African tourism industry

Unlike South Africa, some developing countries in Europe have introduced female entrepreneurship focused policies that address specific issues of women in business. Perhaps this is why female entrepreneurs confront myriad challenges in South Africa. Entrepreneurship is considered to be a major vehicle for socioeconomic development and a viable option for mainstream integration into both the formal and informal (survivalist) economy. Therefore any government that is interested in improving economic prosperity should also be interested in promoting female entrepreneurship. This study took place within the tourism industry of South Africa with the objective of determining the specific support services that can be utilised to promote the growth and development of female entrepreneurship in the Western Cape. A mixed methods approach was used to collect data. The sample was drawn from the database of the Tourism department in the government of the City of Cape Town. They comprised female-owned accommodation businesses. Out of the six hundred and fifty registered accommodation businesses, only one hundred and fifty of them were female owned. All of them were targeted (census), buy only fifty usable questionnaires were returned. The findings indicate the need forfinancial support; training/knowledge skills; business counseling/support; legal support; and female entrepreneurship-based policies. We recommend among others that financial institutions should make financial contributions to non-financial support services such as provision of financial management skills and mentoring