The Impacts of Broadband Internet on the Value Chain of the Tourism Sector in Kenya
online resource
posted on 2024-09-06, 06:26authored byTimothy Waema, Charles Katua
The tourism sector is regarded as the second largest source of foreign exchange revenue in Kenya. Kenya has witnessed revolutionary development of ICTs,
especially the recent development in internet with the arrival of the undersea fibre bandwidth in East Africa in 2009/2010. This development has led to
many players in the tourism sector in Kenya adopting different ICT platforms to derive positive strategic and operational management and marketing
benefits. Specifically, big and medium players have used these platforms to fight off competition and maintain market share, while informal and small players
have used the same platforms to make entry into the sector. At the same time, customers are using the ICT platforms to by-pass the middle players and
access services directly from the destination holiday providers. The net effect has been increased competition as well asboth positive and negativeimpacts for
most of the players. However, there are challenges that prevent the deepening of the more positive impacts. The key ones were found tobethe high cost of
developing and maintaining the ICT platforms, relatively unaffordable broadband Internet, lack of adequate human resource skills, lack of affordable online
payment platforms and poor quality of broadband connectivity. We provide appropriate policy recommendations to address these challenges.
History
Citation
Waema, T and Katua, C. (2013) The Impacts of Broadband Internet on the Value Chain of the Tourism Sector in Kenya. Presented at CPRsouth8/CPRafrica2013 conference, 6th September 2013.