ABSTRACT
The literature on the relationship existing between Information and Communication Technologies’ (ICTs’) adoption and business organisations’ performance is replete with the potential gains that can accrue to businesses that adopt them. Some literature have also submitted that despite the identified potential gains, businesses still shy away from adopting these technologies. This study was undertaken to determine if businesses in the hospitality industry in Akure South and Akure North Local Government Areas (LGAs) in Ondo State have started adoption. Primary data were collected using structured questionnaires administered on 82 owners/managers of hotel businesses drawn from 102 hotel businesses in these 2 LGAs. The data collected were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The descriptive analysis showed that the majority (87.80% i.e 72/82) and (93.90% i.e 77/82) of the hotel businesses adopted ICT hardware and the internet respectively but (62,20% i,e. 51/82) of them did not adopt new software innovations after the software that accompanied the hardware at initial purchase became obsolete. The results of the Chi-square test of association performed to determine the relationship between ICT adoption and performance of the hospitality businesses are: X^2(3,N = 82) = 10.25, p=0.02 for ICT hardware adoption, X^2(1,N = 82) = 16.58, p=0.02 for internet adoption and X^2(4,N = 82) = 5.86, p=0.02 for ICT software adoption. The study therefore recommended that in order to lower the unit costs of ICT software and possibly the unit costs of other ICT technologies so that they can become more affordable to the hotels, the owners/managers should engage in some form of self-help measures by for instance, pooling efforts to make bulk purchases of the technologies under the aegis of their associations. As a complement to this, governments at all levels should encourage the businesses to adopt these technologies by granting them well targeted subsidies.
Keywords: ICTs, ICT Adoption, Hotel Businesses, Performance, Ondo State, Nigeria.
