Driver to Gain from Digitalization in Tourism—Insights from South African Experts

Abstract

Digitalization is an ongoing process and a widely discussed topic of our time. Few are only investigating the impact of digitalization and the potentials for business in tourism. Therefore, this paper focuses on investigating the capability of digitalization in the tourism industry in South Africa (ZA). The empirical research is based on a theoretical foundation build on the work of Harting et al. [1]. The results are determined by using the structural equation modeling methodology. The objective of this quantitative study is to detect the main driving forces of digitalization in the tourism sector in ZA. After the literature review, the authors find six potential drivers (sales increase, sharing economy, process costs, personalized offers, social networks, and client reviews) that do have a positive influence on the potential of digitalization in the South African tourism sector. The results show that sales increase, sharing economy, and process costs actually do have a significant as well as positive impact regarding the digitalization potential in the South African tourism sector.