Exploring the Determinants of E-Commerce Usage in the Hotel Industry in Thailand: An Empirical Study

The use of the Internet for communicating and transacting with customers has been growing rapidly in the worldwide tourism industry. However, there is a large variation in the intensity of use of e-commerce in the travel and tourism industry. While the Internet usage varies across countries, even within a country there are large variations amongst enterprises. These variations are mainly due to the impact of several factors associated with the internal and external environment of the enterprise. This study attempts to explore the impact of various factors on the Internet usage rate. The factors are classified into three broad groups: viz. factors associated with the location of the enterprise, internal factors of the enterprise and technological factors. An empirical study conducted with 95 hotels in seven locations in Thailand is used to assess the impact of the factors.