Abstract
Tourism entrepreneurial ecosystem is increasingly employed as a lens to explain regional differences in tourism performance. However, existing studies do not recognize the range of ecosystem configurations and the relational dynamics which shape outcome trajectories. This qualitative case study, grounded in critical realism, adopts an interdisciplinary relational lens to move beyond static, resource-based conceptualization of entrepreneurial ecosystem. It explores how embedded and evolving social relationships shape ecosystem outcomes in the Chattogram Hill Tracts in Bangladesh, a post-conflict, culturally diverse, and institutionally fragmented region. The findings identify three overlapping ecosystem configurations: peer network, institutional support, and community-centric that are defined by distinctive relational patterns. It reveals intra-, inter-, and cross-ecosystem dynamics that contribute to relational fragmentation, contested interdependencies and unsustainable outcomes. These insights offer a diagnostic lens to identify bottlenecks and guide more context-responsive ecosystem design in marginalised tourism regions.