“A little unspoilt paradise”: profile and practices of tourism-related lifestyle migrant entrepreneurs in southern Portugal

Filipa P. Ribeiro (), Kate Torkington () and Sandra Rebelo ()
Additional contact information
Filipa P. Ribeiro: ESGHT & CiTUR, Postal: University of Algarve , & CiTUR Algarve, Portugal, http://citur-tourismresearch.com/
Kate Torkington: ESGHT & CiTUR, Postal: University of Algarve , & CiTUR Algarve, Portugal, http://citur-tourismresearch.com/
Sandra Rebelo: ESGHT & CiTUR, Postal: University of Algarve , & CiTUR Algarve, Portugal, http://citur-tourismresearch.com/

Journal of Tourism, Sustainability and Well-being, 2025, vol. 13, issue 1, 4-19

Abstract: This paper investigates the potential of the fairly recent phenomenon of entrepreneurial lifestyle migration, in the context of rural Algarve (Portugal) from the perspective of lifestyle migrant entrepreneurs (LMEs) and their socioec onomic contribution to the development of rural areas. The study focuses on the profile of LMEs who are active in tourism businesses, by analysing the results of an online survey with a sample of 60 business owners and semi-struc tured interviews with 16 representatives of local councils. Findings show that these LMEs are well-settled, intend to stay and invest in the future. Despite facing complex challenges, including push factors such as bureaucratic obstacles and language barriers, results reveal that lifestyle orientations remain a priority. We argue that if the potential for tourism-related LMEs to contribute with sustainable practices to support tourism development is to be realised, public efforts to support these communities need to be stable and long term.

Keywords: Rural Entrepreneurship; Lifestyle Migrant Entrepreneurs; Rural Tourism; Low Density Areas; Algarve (Portugal) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J61 L26 L83 L88 Z32 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.cieo.pt/journal/J_1_2025/article1.pdf Full text (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ris:jspord:1107

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Tourism, Sustainability and Well-being is currently edited by Patrícia Pinto

More articles in Journal of Tourism, Sustainability and Well-being from Cinturs - Research Centre for Tourism, Sustainability and Well-being, University of Algarve University of Algarve, Faculty of Economics, Campus de Gambelas, 8005-139 Faro, Portugal, Coordinator of the Centre: Prof. Patrícia Pinto, E-mail: pvalle@ualg.pt. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Silvia Fernandes ().