The development of e-Hajj: Influence of diversity issues

Major tourism events pose challenges to administrators, including the development of electronic government (e-Gov) services that offer assistance to tourists. Although technological solutions have frequently been proposed in past research on such e-Gov services, the diversity aspects associated with tourists have received scant attention, an issue that is compounded by the sheer size and variety of tourist groups. Thus, this research paper aims, through the theoretical lenses of Contextualism, the Social Shaping of Technology, and the Structurationist View of Technology, to build a conceptual framework to examine and explain how the diversity of tourists can influence the development of e-Gov initiatives for major tourism events. The Hajj, an important religious event in Islam held in the Holy City of Makkah, is used as an in-depth case study to examine diversity phenomena through this conceptual framework. This paper reveals the interrelations between diversity aspects and technological frames as well as identifying key developmental findings that can guide implementation of the e-Gov system for Hajj. The main finding of this research suggested that there is an issue with the process of negotiations mainly in the requirements translation to be addressed in the development process of the electronic Hajj system.