This timely volume is a novel and important contribution to scholarly literature on gender and tourism entrepreneurship, utilising feminist and post‑colonial frameworks to interrogate the role of social policies in facilitating inclusive tourism entrepreneurship.

Drawing on contributions and case studies from across the Global South and Global North, this multi‑disciplinary collection identifies how regional variations in governance and policy influence the experiences and potentialities of tourism entrepreneurship as a promised avenue for inclusive growth for marginalised identities. Problematizing universalised constructions of entrepreneurs as necessarily masculine, western, and driven only by economic imperatives that seek to fix and dislocate entrepreneurial support, this volume takes focus with place‑based approaches to explore the intersections between identity, tourism entrepreneurship and social policy. It is this geographically informed perspective that seeks to account for the complexity of entrepreneurial experience, and the role of social policy within this, that constitutes an original contribution to the field. The focus on gender and social policy reflects the increasing importance of tourism entrepreneurship within the context of the UNWTOs Sustainable Development Goals.

This book will be a pivotal resource for students, researchers, academics and policy makers in tourism, gender studies, development studies, sustainability and business.

Anna de Jong is a Senior Lecturer in Tourism in the College of Social Sciences in the School of Social and Environmental Sustainability at the University of Glasgow, United Kingdom. Anna is the Director of Research, within the School of Social & Environmental Sustainability. Anna is an interdisciplinary social scientist, with a background in human geography and tourism management. Her research takes focus with the relationships between tourism and place, guided by wider concerns of inequality and accessibility.

Michael Zisuh Ngoasong is a Professor of Entrepreneurship in the School for Business and Society at the University of York, UK; a Visiting Professor at The Open University, UK, where he is affiliated with the Centre for Social and Sustainable Enterprise; and a Senior Research Associate in the School of Hospitality and Tourism at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa. Michael is the author of Women’s Entrepreneurial Journeys in Sub‑Saharan Africa (2023).

Albert Nsom Kimbu is a Reader and Head of the Tourism and Transport Department in the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management at the University of Surrey Guildford, UK. He is also a Senior Research Associate in the School of Tourism and Hospitality at the University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa. Albert consults and has published widely on topics related to gender, entrepreneurship and tourism for equitable and inclusive development. He is the co‑editor of Routledge Handbook on Gender in Tourism: Views on Teaching, Research and Praxis (Routledge, 2024).