Description:
<jats:sec><jats:title content-type="abstract-heading">Purpose</jats:title><jats:p>This paper aims to examine the extent to which micro businesses in tourism might influence the process of tourism policy formation and change in urban settings.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type="abstract-heading">Design/methodology/approach</jats:title><jats:p>A conceptual framework that considers the motivations to participate in the policy‐making process and the resources needed to influence policy change informs a case study of micro businesses in Saltaire, UK.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type="abstract-heading">Findings</jats:title><jats:p>The paper argues that, although the propensity of local micro firms to influence the local political agenda will be affected by structural considerations that manifest themselves differently from place to place, it is possible to identify key conditions that will need to be present if such enterprises are to challenge the power of other local interests.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type="abstract-heading">Originality/value</jats:title><jats:p>The paper begins to redress the imbalance in the literature that has neglected micro business participation in policy formation and change.</jats:p></jats:sec>