The role of small and medium-sized enterprises in developing Egypt's tourism industry using e-Commerce

As the world moves into the information age, consumers' expectations are being radically altered with the advent of the Internet and the flow of information and knowledge it provides to the global community. Moreover, with the continuous development of e-Commerce, businesses of different sizes and from various industries can enhance its productivity and profitability in ways deemed almost impossible a decade ago. For small and medium sized enterprises, that represents a challenge as well as an opportunity for growth and development, especially in a growing global digital economy where the world becomes the market place. One such industry that can benefit from the application of e-Commerce is tourism. Tourism, travel and cultural exploration emerged as a strong industry over the last two decades and with the advent of the Internet and e-Commerce, the industry will grow more exponentially, which will represent a great opportunity for countries with tourism and culture attractions such as Egypt; land of the world's oldest and greatest civilization. This paper addresses the concerns of how local individual organizations, especially SMEs, can utilize the advantages offered by today's information and communication technology to better compete for incoming tourism and improve its profitability because only those organizations that will capitalize on available ICT tools will succeed in the fierce competition existing in the tourism industry. The paper demonstrates the case of the King Hotel in Cairo, showing how local small and medium sized hospitality businesses in Egypt can prosper from emerging information and communication technology and how it can affect its business process and its strategies development and implementation both on the short and medium terms.