Tourism Recreation Research

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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.

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