Abstract—Saudi Arabia is gifted with Hajj & Umrah religious tourism that accounts for 7 million visitors each year and constitutes a highly profitable business which could be further enhanced with e-commerce integration. However, despite the availability of technological and financial resources, e-commerce has not been adopted to its full capacity in the Saudi tourism market. This study conducted a qualitative survey among decision makers in the Saudi tourism industry and found that cultural aspects are a significant reason behind the limited adoption of e-commerce. There is a pervasive trust issue with online business with fears about privacy and security compounded by a low level of awareness of ecommerce services as such. It also found that Saudis overall have not developed a comfort level with the procedures involved in online transactions. Also, most Saudi travel agencies are family businesses which in most cases have a risk averse leadership that likes to stick to the status. The rich and nuanced explanation of these cultural factors in this paper explains how e-commerce usage in Saudi Arabia is lagging behind despite the availability of technological and financial capability.

Index Terms—E-commerce, cultural means, information system, technology adoption, Saudi Arabia, tourism.

Hani Brdesee, Brian Corbitt and Siddhi Pittayachawan are with School of Business IT and Logistics, RMIT University, Melbourne, Vic. Australia(email: haniid@hotmail.com, brian.corbitt@rmit.edu.au,siddhi.pittayachawan@rmit.edu.au ).

Cite: Hani Brdesee, Brian Corbitt, and Siddhi Pittayachawan, "Lessons to Be Learnt: Cultural Means Impeding e-Commerce Adoption in a Saudi Industry," International Journal of e-Education, e-Business, e-Management and e-Learning vol. 2, no. 6, pp. 488-492, 2012.