Tourism development amid rapidly advancing technology

Internet use is rising rapidly throughout the world. With a global population of 7 billion people, it’s estimated that over one third are online.  Over the last five years, developing countries have increased their share of the world’s total number of internet users from 44% in 2006, to 62% in 2011[1]. Consequently, a new group of off-grid, online communities are emerging. The question is what type of impact could this have on community-based tourism development?

Another important consideration is the role of internet within telecommunications development as the technologies become increasingly inter-connected. The past 15 years have brought about an unprecedented growth rate regarding access to telephone services within developing countries. There are more than twice as many mobile owners in developing countries as in industrialised countries. Subscriber growth rates in developing countries are on average 25 percent per year.1

The World Bank recently produced a study which claims a one percentage point increase in mobile penetration in developing countries is correlated with an increase of 4.7 per cent of average per capita income. Also, a one percentage point increase in internet penetration in developing countries correlates with an increase in 10.5 per cent of average per capita income.[2]This has a particularly interesting application in Viet Nam since 40% of internet users within the country are accessing the internet via their phones, and 98% of Viet Nam is expected to have 3G coverage by end 2012.

 In view of this, it is easy to assume that the connectivity of a population will have a major influence on the development of tourism in that region. As the affordability of this technology increases, many consider the major challenge regarding access levels to be capacity, skill, and training. An interesting consideration, however is that the absorption of rich media content has been proven to translate better to culturally different learning styles than traditional literature. As exposure becomes increasingly likely, it will be valuable for stakeholders involved in tourism development to pay close attention to the integration of these rapidly growing technologies.

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[1]ITU (2011) http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/

[2] Qiang, C. (2009). What are the economic and social impacts of the mobile phone sector in developing countries? http://www.proparco.fr/webdav/site/proparco/shared/PORTAILS/Secteur_prive_developpement/PDF/SPD4_PDF/Christine-Zhen-Wei-Qiang-World-Bank-Mobile-Telephony-A-Transformational-Tool-for-Growth-and-Development.pdf