E-commerce’ll boost tourism if crime is curbed – Dutta

By Bianca Iboma

Kushal Dutta, managing director, Jumia Travels, has said that Nigeria has a huge e-commerce opportunity for tourism that could witness unprecedented growth, if the security challenges in the country are curbed, to serve as a base for the expansion of Africa’s e-commerce, especially in the area of tourism and hospitality.
He made the remarks while speaking at the fifth anniversary of Jumia Group in Lagos recently. Dutta argued that Nigeria would have been a base for the expansion of Africa’s e-commerce, especially in the area of tourism, but the effects of terrorism and other crimes have impacted negatively on inbound tourism, even though a large number of international tourists consider Nigeria a tourist destination.
He explained that widespread e-commerce could be developed through local innovation, although structural deficiencies have made millions of Africans who intend to make use of  online market not to have access to digital finance, he said.
Also, he explained that e-commerce within the travel and tourism industry has replaced the traditional method of marketing and acquiring information about the customer, noting that the obsolete method, which involved the use of travels agents that attracted a service fee has been phased out and replaced with modern technologym with the use of the Internet becoming more popular.
“More customers have been captured through the Internet and it has increased profitability in the industry. The strategy of using technology has made the industry very competitive as more companies keep entering the market daily.
“As technology improves, the industry has made steps to catch up with the advancements, especially marketing its products. Many companies in the industry have been innovative about the types of products they provide in the market. It is the competitive increase in the global market that has forced many companies to adopt new strategies of promoting and marketing their products. The tourism sector has taken adequate steps to advance with the technology,” he said.