The effect of online access on the performance of tour companies in Uganda:

Abstract

Tourism is increasingly becoming an important sector of economy in Uganda, as it contributes around 10% to the country’s GDP, which is consistent with the earlier projection by World Travel and Tourism Council that the contribution of tourism to the World’s GDP would rise to nearly 11% by 2014. Tourism industry is also considered among the first sectors to embrace Information Technology (IT) use; and in particular online access is considered crucial to the tourism industry and its success. This study sought to understand the use of online access to promote tourism products in Uganda, as relates to different levels of website development and their relative contribution to number of bookings done online and actual visitors. The study adopted an approach where questions prepared in the questionnaire format were administered to the respondents in face-to-face interviews. The respondents were employees of tour companies randomly selected to participate in the study. The variables of interest included nature of website a tour company has, level of website development, factors influencing the development of a website and the contribution websites make to the business success. The results showed that most tour companies, 43(84.3%) out of 51, use website to market their products and services. However, the levels of website development varied significantly between static and interactive types of websites, with over 80% of static websites being developed to a low level compared to interactive websites. The variations were influenced by a company’s financial resource endowment as well as technical expertise. Although all tourism enterprises reported business success, the level of website development also influenced the number of bookings and visitors, and consequently contributed to the success in tourism business. For example, tour companies with high levels of website development booked an average of 91 and 121 number of people higher than companies with medium and low levels of websites development, respectively. In conclusion, these findings have important implications for policy and practice regarding tourism business in Uganda. For instance, tourism business policy should encourage public-private partnerships that would provide necessary support to address factors constraining website development to higher levels that can foster the growth of tourism industry in Uganda