Local entrepreneurship through a multistakeholders' tourism living lab in the post-violence/peripheral era in the Basque Country

Abstract

This paper examines a transformative tourism case study driven by local entrepreneurship in the coastal and post-violence/peripheral village of Zumaia, in the Basque Country (Spain). This paper aims at addressing an innovative methodology called “Tourism Living Lab through Multistakeholders' Penta Helix framework” in response to a globalized trend of increasing visitors. The result shows democratic tourism policy-making practices at the local level, including: (i) a participatory strategic formulation process; (ii) by fostering a local entrepreneurial ecosystem to overcome “tourism-phobia”; (iii) while renewing local identity; and (iv) through bridging social capital for a new post-violence era in the Basque Country.