An analysis of e-tourism implementation factors: A Case Study of the Hamadan province, Iran

In the new world of tourism, information technology is used to manage tourism destinations, develop business models, and interact with tourists. Thus, in a tourism destination, the alignment of IT-based practical actions needs to be taken into account. This study set out to analyze the influential factors involved in implementing e-tourism and develop a useful model in this regard, trying to propose operational actions based on the evaluation scores of the factors in the area under study. These factors were obtained from the related literature using thematic analysis. Moreover, interpretive structural modeling was used to determine the relationships between the factors and complexity reduction. The study’s statistical population comprised Hamadan’s tourism experts who were selected via purposive sampling. The study’s findings showed that out of the eleven factors involved in implementing e-tourism, social factors (governmental laws and policies, public awareness and culture, and sense of trust and justice) were the main driving forces. The dependence of technical factors (IT infrastructures in tourist attractions and destination management organizations) on other factors was found to be greater than the other ones. Moreover, based on the study’s results, specific measures were proposed for implementing information technology in Hamadan’s tourism industry through capital asset acquisition projects, private investment projects, and executive activities.