Barriers of e-Tourism Adoption in Developing Countries: A Case Study of Nepal

Developing countries lack e-tourism competencies despite attractive destinations to offer. Nepal is one of the developing countries with its natural beauty and diverse cultural heritage that has great tourism potential. This research is aimed at identifying barriers of e-tourism adoption in developing countries, using Nepal as a case study. Based on the Technology, Organization and Environment (TOE) and e-readiness models, and our literature review, we propose ten factors that affect e-tourism adoption. We applied mixed methods to validate these factors using seven interviews with relevant stakeholders and a survey of 198 tourism organisations in Nepal. The results demonstrate that e-tourism adoption is affected by environmental factors such as lack of national infrastructure, market size, and country-specific contextual factors. Similarly, organizational factors include lack of e-tourism awareness, lack of resources, low value proposition and limited top management support. Finally, we discuss these factors and its implication to policy and practice.