The present study allows researchers to examine the influence of innovation on organizational competitiveness of 430 small hospitality and tourism companies in a country emerging from a turbulent past, Colombia, and in particular analyzes companies from the cities of Cali and Popayan. Data were collected through face-to-face survey research. First, the researchers performed a confirmatory factor analysis for validating the scale. Second, for the examination of the hypotheses, structural equation modeling (SEM) was performed. The findings show a significant, direct, and negative relationship between innovation and competitiveness, presenting the discussion of possible negative impacts for small hospitality and tourism companies in emerging contexts. Empirical evidence found allows to fulfill the gap between this relationship in terms of the different and possible effects of innovation in an emerging context and considering this type of companies on the hospitality and tourism industry.