Tanzania E-readiness in tourism industry

The study aimed to determining the E-readiness of tourism sector in Tanzania. it involved tourist visitors of Ngorogoro conservation area and Serengeti National part, tour operators and other players and practitioners in the tourism industry. Data was collected from primary source (tourists) who filled the questionnaires on the spot, interviews with tour operators and some staff of Ngorogoro conservation area authority. The results showed that both use of website in marketing use of online payment and connectivity are related to the e-readiness. The model developed was found to have a weak predictive measure of e-readiness since it only represents nearly one third of variation which occur in e- readiness. The result showed that there is a lot of work to be done in order to ensure the e- readiness is taking place in the tourism industry due to the fact that the level of connectivity is still very low and the internet connection is very slow, factors which hinder business participation in a globalized world market. Last but not least, most of Tanzania’s tourism websites are just used for advertising and not for business and thus online transaction system is not utilized. The use of online transaction (e-business) will end the ongoing financial loss that is taking place in Tanzania since most tourists’ transactions take place in western countries. Therefore as the study proclaims tourism is one of the major economic sector in Tanzania and thus in order to ensure its successful utilization in the era of science and technology there is a need of e-readiness assessment.