E-commerce at the service of tourism

Tourism Trust Fund of Kenya insists on legalizing electronic payments that at the moment are represented only by Kenya Airways which succeeded due to its cooperation with South African Banks. All the local banks are avoiding e-payments due to the threats of online fraud.

According to TTF the lack is impeding the effective implementation of online tourism in Kenya, and only legalization of e-payments can help to make E-tourism a reality.

TTF proposes to make amendments on the Kenya Information, Communications and Technology (ICT) Bill 2008 as a way to reach the goal. According to TTF this step will make it easy for stakeholders to market the country's tourism sector via Internet.

They also added that according to their observations world e-travel market has significantly developed during the last 10 years and it is inadmissible that Kenya is not in the front line.

According to statistics in 2006, online sales accounted for 19.5 per cent of the global retail travel sector. In the UK, online bookings increased from 7per cent in 2002 to 35 per cent in 2006.