Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Tourism

Tourism is a dynamic industry, with an important potential to stimulate entrepreneurship and social innovation by creating new jobs. In this way, it contributes to a long-run smart, sustainable and inclusive local development. This paper supports the idea that the tourism industry and mostly the cultural tourism can advance through innovative entrepreneurship, by introducing new methods of production, new delivery methods or simply new products and services that will attract customers. Since innovation involves doing things in a different and better manner, the paper's goal is to identify the available innovative methods that can be applied to the tourism industry. Special reference is given to the cultural tourism, as part of the creative and cultural industries. The paper includes a series of statistical data regarding tourism in the European Union and an analysis of the impact on the customer experience and local economy development.