ICTs and Tourism in Small Island Developing States: The Case of the Maldives

Abstract

Tourism is the leading economic activity in many small island developing states, such as the Maldives. Increasing reliance on information and communication technology in the tourism industry has become one of the major challenges facing developing countries, especially the small island developing states. Though the use of information and communication technology can potentially overcome barriers of distance and open up new markets, exploiting the full potential of information and communication technology can be problematic for small island developing states due to limited resources in terms of finance and human capital. This research uses a combination of grounded theory and multi-grounded theory to investigate this issue. This process generated a set of factors and institutional influences affecting the adoption and integration of information and communication technology in the tourism organizations of small island developing states like the Maldives. These factors and institutional influences formed the basis of a new theoretical framework organized around three themes: country, sector, and information systems. Many of the issues in using information and communication technology in the Maldives tourism industry are similar to those faced by other developing countries; however, two factors were found to be unique to small island developing states: the issues of vulnerability and technology dependency. These issues were found to have a major impact on the way the tourism industry operates in the Maldives, because of the industry’s dependence on information and communication technology.