The conclusions of the current study are based on the study objectives, which were initially presented in Chapter One. As was previously stated, the current study sought to:
explore the profiles of the current tourism stakeholders, and the role that they play in the development of tourism offerings in Harare;
determine the stakeholders’ views and attitudes towards tourism offerings in Harare; and
ascertain the current popular tourism offerings in Harare, as seen by the tourism stakeholders. The aims of the objective were to determine the availability of feasible offerings that currently contributed, or which could contribute, to the overall development of the city, and to gauge the stakeholders’ level of satisfaction with tourism offerings in Zimbabwe.
Additional objectives were to:
determine the variables influencing the tourism development in Harare from a stakeholder perspective, and
propose a framework of recommendations, based on the key findings, which could be useful in the process of planning, policy and strategy implementation undertaken by the relevant governmental organisations, towards the igniting of tourism development in Zimbabwe.
In relation to the above, the current section presents a synthesis of the research results, keeping the aforementioned predetermined study objectives in mind. The study has revealed both similarities and differences in the information received from the residents, the tourists and the key informants, in terms of their reflections on the urban tourism offerings in Zimbabwe. The residents who participated in the study ranged from 25 years old to over 65, consisting of more female participants than male. The tourists who participated in the study were within the range of 18 and 74 years of age, with there once again being more women than men. The key informants’ demographic profiles were not collected, as the study objectives in relation to them were focused only on obtaining their views.
In the above regard, the conclusions drawn below are based on the previously mentioned stakeholders’ similarities and differences in relation to their reflections on the urban tourism offerings of Zimbabwe. Since the conceptual framework chapter, Chapter Two, and the literature review chapter, Chapter Three, in the current study were developed based on the study objectives, the two chapters were also synthesised with the obtained stakeholder views to draw the required conclusions.
6.2.1 Conclusions based on the first study objective: to explore the profiles of current tourism stakeholders, and the role that they play in the development of tourism offerings in Harare.
According to Byrd (2007), tourist stakeholders are heterogeneous in nature, and they have constantly changing views, as well as they themselves also constantly changing. The UNWTO (2005b:7) highlights ten different tourism stakeholder groups, with which a number of scholars like Keyser (2009), Chen and Turner (2012), Poudel et al. (2016), and Morakabati et al. (2017) concur. In the current study, the conceptual framework chapter, Chapter Two, helped to achieve the first objective by means of identifying the different types of tourism stakeholders, as well as the roles that they tend to play.
In the chapter, the main tourism stakeholders were identified as the residents, the tourists, and the private and public sectors (Bramwell & Lane, 2013; Goeldner & Ritchie, 2009; Illankoon et al., 2016); Lee, 2013; Sharpley & Telfer, 2015; Trawoger, 2014). The study found that the participants demonstrated an understanding of the roles that they played in the development of tourism offerings in Harare, despite their contending views on the tourism offerings at stake.
The finding, coupled with the participants’ understanding of the concept of tourism, could be attributed to their generally good educational background.
In the case of the residents’ profiles, the study found that the residents in the urban areas of Zimbabwe were relatively young, with an age range up to 54 years old. The study also found that the female population was slightly larger than the male population. The Zimbabwe populace was found to be relatively well-educated, despite most of them being unemployed.
Lastly, their economic status was average, owing to the nature of the informal businesses in which most of them were involved.
The study also found that the residents were aware that they were important stakeholders in the tourism planning and development taking place in Harare, despite their lack of involvement therein. Their understanding of the role that they played in the development of tourism offerings was demonstrated in their responses regarding their level of satisfaction with the tourism offerings available. The negative responses received from the majority of the participants were evidence that the residents were aware of their roles, but yet they were not being recognised in terms of the tourism developments in Harare, hence their unhappiness. The residents’ role in the development of tourism offerings was one of providing suggestions and ideas that would help in identifying the relevant tourism offerings (Giacomo & Angelo, 2013), as well as the key problem areas (Trawoger, 2014), in the above regard. Additionally, they also played a role in providing their viewpoints, through their representatives, in relation to policy formulation, planning, and tourism strategy implementation.
Furthermore, the study found that a number of the tourist respondents indicated that the locals in Zimbabwe were welcoming, friendly and helpful. The residents also played a big role in enhancing the tourists’ experiences through providing a friendly and welcoming environment.
Despite the lack of their involvement in tourism planning, the resident participants of the study showed great confidence in indicating that they influenced tourism development in Harare.
Given their high level of understanding of the concept of tourism, the residents were aware of their position in the tourism sector, and that it would be difficult to develop tourism in their absence, as their communities formed the playground on which tourism performed (Giacomo
& Angelo, 2014; Mirimi et al., 2013; Morupisi & Mokgalo, 2017; Trawoger, 2014).
The study was successful in exploring the profiles of the tourists, and the role that they played as current stakeholders in the development of tourism offerings in Harare. The study concluded that the tourists visiting Harare were relatively well-educated, with most of them having completed a postgraduate degree. Inasmuch as there was a split difference between the male and female travellers, the findings proved that both genders were fairly represented.
Furthermore, their economic status was mostly average, above-average, and affluent, with most
of them either being fully employed or business people, as well as a considerable number of pensioners. In terms of age, the study found that Harare is a destination for all ages. Further, the study also established that leisure and holiday, and VFR, constitute the greater demand for tourism offerings in Harare than do the other categories of tourism. Mostly, the tourists visiting Zimbabwe visited in a maximum of three people, and stayed for under seven nights. The study also found that Zimbabwe was visited mostly by tourists from mainland Africa, despite the improvements that had been made in the number of tourists coming from the country’s traditional tourist markets: USA, Europe, and Australia.
The study was also successful in exploring the roles played by tourists in the development of tourism offerings in Harare. Two main roles that tourists should play in such development are highlighted in Chapter Two of the current study. Firstly, since the tourism offerings are developed with the sole purpose of meeting the needs and expectations of the tourists, their role is to provide their views on how the offerings should be moulded in such a way that is appealing to them (Gronau, 2017; Holden, 2016; Lo, 2017a,b; Ni, 2017). Secondly, tourists are responsible for behaving in a conscientious manner that promotes sustainability as a measure to reduce the negative socio-economic and environmental impacts of tourism at a destination (Lee, 2013).
In relation to the above, the study found that the tourists were not being recognised as stakeholders in the development of tourism offerings in Harare, despite their importance in the process. Despite their exclusion, the study has shown that tourists play a big role in rating the tourism development priorities. The size of their role comes from how they rate the tourism offering, which can trigger the tourism planners to improve their offerings to satisfy the tourists’
needs and expectations. In the current study, the respondents indicated that most of the tourism priorities in Harare were an essential priority in terms of the development of tourism in the city.
Had it not been for the respondents’ rating of the above-mentioned offerings, the tourism planners would likely have overlooked other important tourism offerings that required prioritising when developing tourism offerings in the city. The study also found that the tourists could play a role in rating the level of quality of the tourism offerings at a destination. The conclusion, in such regard, is that the tourist is the consumer of the tourism offerings, and, hence, it is their role to rate the level of quality of the offerings displayed to them. Doing so should assist the tourism developers to mould the offerings to the tourists’ expectations.
Furthermore, the tourists and the residents are equally important tourism stakeholders in the development of tourism in Harare, whose roles are contributory to the success of tourism in the