Perceived benefits and barriers to the use of world wide web marketing among Rwandan hotels

Abstract

This research investigated opinions on two aspects of the World Wide Web as a marketing tool for Rwandan hotels: “Web benefits” as seen by hotels with a Web presence ("adopters"), and “barriers to Web adoption” as seen by hotels without ("non-adopters"). Evidence was collected from a sample of 86 hotels, of which 45 had adopted the Web and 41 had not. Firstly, 86 survey questionnaires were collected and secondly, seven telephone interviews were conducted. They consisted of three Web adopters and four non-adopters. For the survey, open-ended questions were used and a statistical analysis of adopters' opinions depicts the main benefits as being “advertising and promoting”, “providing hotel information”, “communicating better”, “providing online reservation”, “saving cost and time” and “being free from borders”. Importantly, respondents' data also indicates that they considered “increasing business” and “providing competitive advantage” as benefits. In the research results, the latter are considered as the high-end benefits of any marketing effort with “increase in business” depending on “competitive advantage”. The same was done with barriers to Web adoption and a statistical analysis depicts the main barriers as being “high cost of Web implementation”, “lack of external Internet infrastructure”, “lack of IT skills and knowledge”, “perceived costs and benefits”, “lack of top management support” and “lack of awareness about business opportunities and benefits of Web marketing”. The analysis of the interviews reveals that “Web benefits” came through strongly in the qualitative content analysis. The most mentioned benefit was “increasing business”. “Providing hotel information”, “saving cost and time”, “providing online reservation”, “transactions at global level”, “advertising and promoting” and “providing online payment” were also mentioned. Details will be found in the chapter dealing with research results. Further, the interviews reveal that Web adopters were satisfied and generally achieved the benefits they expected from Web adoption; no disbenefits were expressed. On the side of the non-adopters, the interviews reveal that even though they had no website, they believed that Web marketing would be beneficial in terms of marketing, especially for advertising. For a more effective implementation of Web marketing among Rwandan hotels, the researcher provides recommendations to the identified key stakeholders. Also, the researcher recommends further studies, on the use of Internet and Web marketing among Rwandan hotels.