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Tourism Recreation Research
ISSN: 0250-8281 (Print) 2320-0308 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rtrr20
Digital tourism: mobile phones, internet and
tourism in Africa
Ogechi Adeola & Olaniyi Evans
To cite this article: Ogechi Adeola & Olaniyi Evans (2019): Digital tourism: mobile phones, internet
and tourism in Africa, Tourism Recreation Research, DOI: 10.1080/02508281.2018.1562662
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/02508281.2018.1562662
Published online: 11 Jan 2019.
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Digital tourism: mobile phones, internet and tourism in Africa
Ogechi Adeola
a
and Olaniyi Evans
b
a
Lagos Business School, Pan-Atlantic University, Lagos, Nigeria;
b
School of Management & Social Sciences, Pan-Atlantic University, Lagos,
Nigeria
ABSTRACT
This study examines the linear and nonlinear effects of mobile phones and internet on tourism in
Africa for the period 1996–2017 using system general method of moments which accounts for
cross-sectional dependence. The study shows that mobile penetration and internet usage have
significant negative effects on tourism while squared mobile penetration and squared internet
usage have significant positive effects. The empirical findings are consistent with a non-linear (or
quadratic) relationship between mobile penetration, internet usage and tourism, where mobile
penetration and internet usage have significant negative relationship with tourism only to a
certain point, after which they become a boost for tourism. The causality analyses suggest the
existence of uni-directional causality from mobile penetration to tourism and bidirectional
causality between squared mobile penetration and tourism. Also, there is bi-directional causality
between internet usage, squared internet usage, and tourism. This indicates that mobile
penetration and internet usage stimulate tourism which, in turn, boosts internet usage even
further in these countries.
ARTICLE HISTORY
Received 9 September 2018
Accepted 20 December 2018
KEYWORDS
Digital tourism; mobile
penetration; internet usage;
nonlinear
JEL CLASSIFICATION
l83; d12; o55; c33
Introduction
Digital tourism is the use of digital technologies to
enhance tourist experience. It is also the blend of the
real world with digital content in order to enhance
tourist experience. Mobile phones and internet are
driving the digital travel revolution and transforming
the tourism industry in recent decades in many devel-
oped countries (Law, Chan, & Wang, 2018; Reino, Alzua-
Sorzabal, & Baggio, 2013; Tan, Lee, Lin, & Ooi, 2017;
Wang, de Almeida Correia, van Arem, & Timmermans,
2018), especially by enabling the direct interaction of
consumers with the supply chain (Buhalis, 2003; Reino
et al., 2013). Mobile phones and internet enable
tourism destinations to increase online presence and
offline connectivity necessary to be competitive in
today’s global tourism market. They provide the necess-
ary tools and applications to take on tourism manage-
ment more efficiently; offer cheap access to existing
and potential customers, and enable multiple distri-
bution channels (Buhalis, 2003; Law et al., 2018).
For example, smartphones have become an integral
part of everyday life, and more people are acquiring
the latest technology, including tourists. With the mount-
ing ownership of multiple technology devices, and the
contribution of mobile travel bookings to the overall
travel market, smartphones and smart tourism are now
a powerful tool for tourists, owing to the mobile
applications that make travelling easier for tourists
(Law et al., 2018; Murphy, Chen, & Cossutta, 2016; Rusu
& Csorba, 2016; Tan et al., 2017). Travel-based mobile
apps are one of the most downloaded category apps,
and an increasing number of smartphone users prefer
travel apps for planning their leisure tours. Tourism
mobile apps help users in planning travel, route
mapping, ticket bookings, accommodation bookings,
cab booking, and more (Dickinson et al., 2014; Wang &
Fesenmaier, 2013; Wang, Park, & Fesenmaier, 2012).
The tourism industry is using apps to reach the next
level of market penetration and user engagement.
However, while mobile phones and internet have
reached saturation levels in many developed countries,
these technologies have only taken root in Africa in the
past two decades. Since their introduction, mobile pen-
etration and internet usage have grown by leaps and
bounds in the continent. Mobile phones and internet,
therefore, present vast prospects for developing and
reinforcing Africa’s tourism. Notably, mobile phones
and internet have the potential to increase Africa’s
tourism by ‘enabling direct promotion and commerciali-
zation of local tourism offerings in international markets
reducing dependence on big foreign intermediaries’
(Petti & Passiante, 2009, p. 46).
Africa’s resource endowments are such that the conti-
nent ought to be benefitting enormously from tourism.
© 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
CONTACT Olaniyi Evans oevans@pau.edu.ng; olaniyievans@gmail.com
TOURISM RECREATION RESEARCH
https://doi.org/10.1080/02508281.2018.1562662
The continent boasts a wealth of attractions for tourists
from all over the world with historical monuments such
as the cave paintings in Tassili N’Ajjer in Algeria, pyra-
mids of Egypt, Tsodilo in Botswana, Robben Island in
South Africa, cave churches in Ethiopia, and Gorée
Island in Senegal (Adeola, Boso, & Evans, 2017).
However, statistics suggest that tourism development
remains at startlingly low levels in Africa, compared to
other regions of the world. For example, in 2016,
tourism arrivals was 36.7 million in Africa, compared to
583.7 million in Europe & Central Asia (Figure 1).
The recent upsurge in mobile penetration and internet
usage in Africa presents an opportunity for digital tourism
in Africa. However, in the literature, there is no consensus
on the effects of mobile penetration and internet usage
on tourism. The few existing studies have mostly
assumed almost exclusively linear positive effects of
mobile penetration and internet usage on tourism (e.g.
Wang et al., 2012). Moreover, the dearth of rigorous
empirical studies and the consequent inadequate policy
guidance have been highlighted as one of the causes of
Africa’s largely underdeveloped tourism, despite its poten-
tials (Christie & Crompton, 2001). It is notable that recent
empirical studies on tourism in Africa have determined
several factors as the leading drivers of tourism into the
continent (e.g. Adeola et al., 2017). However, none of
the existing studies has looked empirically at the linear
and nonlinear effects of mobile penetration and internet
usage on tourism. This suggests a gap in research,
which is addressed in this study.
The objective of this study, therefore, is to investigate
the linear and nonlinear effects of mobile penetration
and internet usage on tourism in Africa. This study uses
system general method of moments over the period
1996–2017 for a sample of 40 African countries. The
study is significant: it fosters evidence-based decision-
making on the role of mobile penetration and internet
usage in tourism development in Africa. Tourism analysis
is important for governments and policymakers to repo-
sition the continent for enlarged benefits from tourism.
The findings from the study will help to facilitate the
digital connections in the tourism industry and
enhance the development of more effective public
policy towards boosting Africa’s tourism competitive-
ness. Therefore, the study provides significant evidence
for governments and policymakers around Africa and
the world on the effects of mobile phones and internet
on tourism.
Theory and literature review
In information technology and information systems lit-
erature, various theories are used to understand
adoption of new technologies including theory of
reasoned action, innovation diffusion theory, theory of
planned behaviour, the social cognitive theory, technol-
ogy acceptance models, the motivational model, the
model of perceived credibility utilisation and a hybrid
model combining constructs from technology accep-
tance models and theory of planned behaviour (Man-
soori, Sarabdeen, & Tchantchane, 2018; Tarhini, El-
Masri, Ali, & Serrano, 2016; Venkatesh, Thong, & Xu,
2012). Each of these models has sought to identify the
factors which influence the actual use of information
technology. A review and synthesis of these eight
models led to the unified theory of acceptance and use
of technology (UTAUT) (Venkatesh, Morris, Davis, &
Davis, 2003). With empirical analysis, Venkatesh et al.
(2003) found that effort expectancy, performance
expectancy, social influence and facilitating conditions
are the main factors determining technology adoption.
Among them, performance expectancy is related to per-
ceived usefulness and relative advantage. With respect
to the current study, UTAUT is applicable for the reason
that tourists or the tourism industry adopt mobile
phones and internet because of the perceived usefulness
and relative advantage.
Tourism demand, like the demand for any other com-
modity, is influenced by many factors which have been
identified by various studies in the literature (e.g.
Adeola & Evans, in press; Peng, Song, Crouch, & Witt,
2015). The most rigorous studies in this literature are
based on the use of gravity theory/model (e.g. Adeola
& Evans, in press; Morley, Rosselló, & Santana-Gallego,
2014). A vast literature has therefore investigated the
potential determinants of tourism demand (e.g. Adeola
et al., 2017; Martins, Gan, & Ferreira-Lopes, 2017; Pham,
Nghiem, & Dwyer, 2017). Potentially significant drivers
of tourism demand identified in the literature include
habit persistence in travel preferences (Adeola et al.,
2017; Peng et al., 2014), changes in tourists’tastes
(Muchapondwa & Pimhidzai, 2011), travel cost (Mucha-
pondwa & Pimhidzai, 2011; Saayman & Saayman, 2008),
income (Muchapondwa & Pimhidzai, 2011; Saayman &
Saayman, 2008), and the real effective exchange rate
(Adeola et al., 2017; Ibrahim, 2011).
However, most existing studies in the literature have
mainly concentrated on developed country contexts to
the neglect of the African context. Some of the recent
exceptions are Fourie and Santana-Gallego (2013),
Adeola et al. (2017), and Adeola and Evans (in press).
Fourie and Santana-Gallego (2013) identified the
factors that drive African-inbound and within-African
tourism for 175 origin/destination countries and found
that the determinants of African-inbound and within-
African tourism are not all that different from global
2O. ADEOLA AND O. EVANS
tourism flows: ‘repeat tourism, income, distance, land
area and the standard dummy variables not only drive
global or OECD tourism, but also tourism within Africa,
disproving the belief that African tourists differ substan-
tially’(p. 347). Adeola et al. (2017) determined the key
drivers of international tourism demand in Africa using
a Poisson regression model. The authors showed that
per capita income, real exchange rate, FDI, taste for-
mation, trade openness, and infrastructure are significant
drivers of international tourism into Africa.
A large literature has identified the importance of ICT
(Adeola & Evans, in press; Adeola, Hinson, & Evans, in
press; Evans, 2018a; Yunis, El-Kassar, & Tarhini, 2017).
However, most analyses in the literature have largely
ignored the importance of ICT for tourism with only a
few exceptions (Adeola & Evans, in press; Bethapudi,
2013; Firoiu & Croitoru, 2013). Bethapudi (2013) argued
that ICT plays a major role in tourism development and
the tourism industry’s expansion. Ma, Buhalis, and Song
(2003) investigated the dynamics of ICT and internet
sources while the personal computer is the most used
device for both searching and booking. They, however,
found a significant difference in how these device
users engage with information sources, specifically
online travel agents and search engines: device users
favour one device and are not likely to switch devices
during the search process. Litvin, Goldsmith, and Pan
(2018) showed that electronic word of mouth has
become a major influence on the hospitality and
tourism industry and will continue to play an essential
role in hospitality marketing in the foreseeable future.
Wang et al. (2012) explored the mediation mechan-
isms of smartphones by observing stories provided by
travellers regarding their use of smartphones (and
associated applications) for travelling purposes. They
found that smartphones can change tourists’behaviour
and emotional states by addressing various information
needs: ‘in particular, the instant information support of
smartphones enables tourists to more effectively solve
problems, share experiences, and store memories’
Figure 1. International tourism arrivals.Data Source: World Bank (2017).
TOURISM RECREATION RESEARCH 3
