Assessment of The Level of Adoption of E-commerce by Selected Star-rated Hotels in Nairobi City: A Case of Extended Model of Internet Commerce Adoption

Abstract

E-commerce, particularly internet marketing and website design is one of the emerging strategies in creating competitive advantage in the tourism and hospitality industry. The confidence level of using internet among potential travellers has increased drastically and hence hoteliers have to put efforts to develop website that meets the contemporary emerging trends. This paper aims to evaluate the e-commerce adoption by selected hotels in Nairobi City due to rising growth of the hospitality industry in the city. As a result of the Covid 19 pandemic, many businesses resorted to using e-commerce in providing their services to their esteemed clientele. The study is based on the concept of Extended Model of Internet Commerce Adoption (EMICA) in order to compare the website features and performance. A total of 35 hotel websites in Nairobi were examined using leading search engines including- Google, Yahoo Search and MSN. This study established the time and resources efficiency associated to e-commerce in relation to physical correspondence in accessing the hotel services. The study also revealed that hotels in Nairobi lose revenue by providing limited contents on products and services and that a competitor can easily take away the customers online despite property offering more superior products. The study gives reveals how the hospitality industry loose revenue by not offering real-time reservations on their own online platforms. Suggestions are given on the possible ways that hotels can apply to create competitive advantage and have improved revenue. The study also offers recommendations on how tourism and hospitality industry in Nairobi may increase the destination profile online by offering products and services all under one portal instead of transferring potential customers to third party platforms at a booking stage.