The importance of online payment on Travel and Tourism incomes - A Cross-Country Panel Data Study

Abstract

Digital facilities are changing the way companies market to consumers. The use of smartphones and what we called Internet of Things (IoT) are changing the way citizens consume. In this article we perform a cross-country panel data study to analyze how the implementation of business Internet use for buying/selling goods and services, and for interaction with customers influences, for example, the international travel and tourism incomes. Our results show that the use of electronic commerce attracts international tourism and increases tourism revenue, as well as decreases the degree of tourism specialization in the country’s export structure, the relative capability of tourism in generating foreign revenues decrease compare with the other sectors that become more powerful. Besides, we present one of the main political and governmental inhibitor that in this issue the companies must deal with in an international context, the currency exchange control, not yet greatly studied in previous literature.

Keywords

• e-commerce; e-payment; tourism competitiveness; foreign exchange control