Place, tourism and cultural entrepreneurship: a critical engagement with cultural political economy

The pandemic and economic uncertainties have reshaped our perception of culture. The emerging cultural and creative strategies encourage cultural entrepreneurship, which however faces skills shortages, financial vulnerability, marginalisation and industrial downsizing. These short- and long-term challenges call for systematic interventions to (re)engage cultural entrepreneurs, particularly in the post-pandemic era. Drawing on a Cultural Political Economy (CPE) approach, this study applies Lounsbury and Glynn’s model of cultural entrepreneurship to examine how cultural entrepreneurs engage with tourism as a practice of placed-based meaning-making. Given that cultural capital, cultural politics of place, and entrepreneurial storytelling are relational, the case study of Shakespeare Birthplace Trust demonstrates that cultural entrepreneurs must embed the unique place features while balancing digital innovations, cultural tourism activities, and entrepreneurial legitimacy. Achieving this requires skilled entrepreneurial storytelling to construct strong social and cultural ties with local communities, educators, business investors and urban planners.

© 2025 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)