Mobile Payment Enhancing Tourism in Emerging Markets: A Qualitative Study among Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) in Rwanda's Tourism Sector

Technological advancement has fueled various new mobile payment (m-payment) services, which transform the payment industry and help develop established and newly created tourism businesses. However, in emerging markets, users who adopt m-payment services are rare - slowing down the tourism sector's development. In this paper, taking a multi-stakeholder theoretical perspective on technology adoption, we examine the company-, customer- and country-level drivers and consequences of adopting m-payment services among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Rwandan tourism sector. Our analysis leads to recommendations for m-payment services as levers of tourism sector growth and welfare in emerging countries.