Kenya
Kenya losing out due to lack of e-policy
While most tourism firms in Africa have Websites that claim to be engaged in online tourism or e-tourism, a number of players are now warning that this could turn out to be wishful thinking.
Damian Cook the managing director of e-Tourism Africa — a major initiative to develop online tourism across Africa through business conferences, training of SMEs and engagement with governments says e-tourism is turning out to be a widely misunderstood term.
“Many people believe that if they have a functional Website and hear from their clients via email they are practising E-tourism. But in a global sense, e-tourism means communicating tourism content across a variety of channels direct to consumers, who can then convert their interest to sales in an immediate real time e-commerce environment”
According to the above definition, he says, Kenya is essentially invisible. “Actual Kenyan content that is available for e-commerce sale in real time is almost impossible to find online” he adds.
This is for two key reasons — Kenyan banking laws and structures do not have provisions for e-commerce and the private sector is largely not aware of the available channels and resources to make the shift online.
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