The international experience points to few countries having designated support programmes that are specific to small tourism firms. In 2000 South Africa's Tourism Enterprise Programme (TEP) was launched, functioning as a dedicated support initiative to assist the development and upgrading of small tourism firms within the national tourism economy. This article analyses TEP's activities within the changed environment of post-apartheid tourism development, and highlights the evolution of its innovative operations for supporting tourism entrepreneurship and the upgrading of small, medium-sized and micro-enterprises (SMMEs) in South Africa's tourism economy. It is argued that TEP's activities might provide an example of ‘good practice’ for other developing countries.
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