Adoption of ICT in the Tourism and Hospitality sector in Zimbabwe

Abstract

Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) have revolutionised the travel industry in the last decade. e-Tourism reflects the digitalisation of all processes and value chains in the tourism, travel, hospitality and catering industries. It emerges as a term describing the entire range of applications of ICTs on tourism and the implications for the tourism value chain. Major opportunities and challenges have emerged and need to be addressed by all industry players. However, the level of eTourism developments varies between regions, countries and continents. The key objective of this research has been to examine the Adoption of ICT in the tourism industry mainly looking at Meikles Hotel in Zimbabwe .In particular the research examines the level of ICT diffusion in tourism enterprises .The tourism sector is experiencing an acceptance of ecommerce to the extent that the whole industry structure is changing .The web is used not only for information gathering but also for ordering services .A new type of user is emerging one who acts as his or her own travel agent and build a personalised travel package .This research focuses on evaluating the current status of Meikles Hotel Zimbabwe in order to study the adoption of e-commerce applications on the hospitality sector.