ICT Staff Literacy and its Influence on the Growth of Serviced Accommodation Facilities in Kwale County, Kenya

Abstract

Hospitality industry is increasingly utilizing ICT for product and service development, serving a discerning customer base. This study aimed to assess the influence of ICT staff literacy on the growth of serviced accommodation facilities (SAFs) in Kwale County, Kenya. Specific objective for this study was; to establish how ICT staff literacy influences the growth of SAFs. The study adopted an embedded mixed research method on the 254 participants. The questionnaires were sent in for of google form link and hard copies to owners, supervisors, frontline staff, consultants in hospitality management of the SAFs. Guests and government staff were interviewed. 188 out of 254 responded with a positive response of 74.02%. The sampling was done through simple random sampling and the size was 254 respondents. The Pearson correlation findings shows that ICT Staff Literacy was positively and significantly related with growth of SAFs in Kwale, Kenya (r = .585; P < 0.05). Descriptive and inferential statistics such as regression analysis were used and the former presented using mean and percentages. Thematic analysis was used to present qualitative aspects and help group data for statistical analysis where ICT Staff Literacy had a strong correlation with growth of SAFs in Kwale County (R = 0.698). This suggests that ICT staff literacy is a strong predictor of growth among SAFs. The R-square (57%) shows that the change in the dependent variable (growth) of SAFs in Kwale County, Kenya) is explained by the independent variable. Results for ICT staff literacy were (B = 0.187; t = 3.073, > 1.96, = P-Value is 0.0031, < 0.05). Because the p-value for ICT staff literacy was below 0.05, the hypothesis was rejected. Some of the barriers to ICT staff literacy identified include high costs, lack of infrastructure, insufficient training, and resistance from staff. Strategic Recommendations for Improving ICT staff literacy include; more government support, more incentives, and continuous training among staff. The findings of this study are useful to various stakeholder groups including academicians, policy makers, hotel managers, and potential investors.