EXPLORING THE IMPACT OF SHARED ECONOMY IN TOURISM Paulo Azenha a , Gabriela Beirão b and Alexandra Xavier a a Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, Portugal, PORTUGAL b INESC TEC, Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, PORTUGAL ABSTRACT This paper presents the results of a qualitative study exploring the sustainability of new service model based on collaborative consumption in a tourism setting. Thirty interviews were undertaken both with local communities in Indonesia offering the services and with customers, to understand the impact and type of services being offered. The results show a change in the social paradigm allowing locals to obtain extra income and fostering micro-entrepreneurship, thus promoting local economic development. Furthermore, these new services offer customers an experience not available in standard companies, allowing them to interact more deeply with the local culture and people. KEYWORDS Shared economy, sustainability, micro-entrepreneurship, collaborative consumption, tourism. INTRODUCTION In the current context of economic instability and complex environment, the need for recovery and development of national economies led to the emergence of entrepreneurs seeking opportunities, for generating wealth, employment, sustainable new business models and social development. This drove to a revival of the shared economy supported by new technologies, enabling the sharing of products and services. This new business service models based on collaborative consumption and citizens’ participation allow a better distribution of income for local economies and their stakeholders. This new disruptive economic approach contrast from traditional business models, causing profound changes in societies and in the way citizens interacts with these organizations. The small size required for this type of business drives a change of the economic paradigm in today's society, where more and more the acquisition process is drived by experiencing something new. The underlying base of this economic model is collaborative consumption, which is generally related to the activity of sharing goods and services inside of peer-to-peer networks. This terminology is usually associated to