Adoption of Internet and Web Technology for Hotel Marketing: A Study of Hotels in Thailand

Abstract

This paper examines the effect of three groups of characteristics: organisational, technological, and environmental on the adoption of Internet and Web based marketing activities (IWMA) in the hotel industry by using data collected from a sample of 152 hotels in Thailand. The adoption of IWMA has been categorised into two levels: 1) non-early adopter hotels, and 2) early adopter hotels. The results indicate that Thai hotels that adopted IWMA at the early adopter stage were larger in size, and more likely to be more ready to adopt IWMA than non-early adopter hotels were. Managers of Thai hotels in the early adopter stage were more likely to perceive the benefits and recognise compatibility when adopting IWMA than were managers in the non-early adopter hotels. Customer power and level of government support were considered to be the push factors for hotels in the use of IWMA at the early adopter stage more than for non-early adopter hotels.