Abstract:
While tourism has often been proposed as a mechanism for equitable and sustainable development in
developing countries, most destination communities remain relegated to the role of passive “tourees”
who are unable to participate in economic opportunities often controlled by tourism retail monopolies.
Guided by information systems (IS) research on mobile and temporarily interconnected systems (MTIS),
this work examines the ubiquitous nature of information services for users on the move. That is, users
that are largely dependent on mobile telephones and temporary tourism services. Stakeholder interviews
included local South African micro-entrepreneurs from under-resourced rural and peri-urban
communities and other national and regional stakeholders. The findings informed the development and
early implementation of a web marketplace for tourism micro-entrepreneurs (i.e.,
www.peoplefirsttourism.com) that bridges hyper-connected consumers with under-resourced microentrepreneurs
who use simple mobile phones. Further, this study builds on interdisciplinary research to
enrich discussions about ICT for Development (ICT4D).
Keywords:
Information
