Travel motivations: a comparative assessment of Zimbabwe’s major international source markets.

Abstract

Extant literature on travel motivations, especially from a comparative perspective, has largely been constructed in the context of European and American destinations. Little has been documented on destinations elsewhere. The study therefore sought to investigate and compare the motivations of international tourists to Zimbabwe from the United States, the United Kingdom and South Africa. Using the quantitative approach, data were collected from 267 respondents and analysed both at item level and factor level. Exploratory Factor Analysis of the 19 motivation variables yielded five factors: ‘novelty and knowledge enhancement’, ‘escape’ and ‘nature experience’ emerged as the major motivation factors, while egoism and social interaction were least important. The study revealed that tourist motivations vary between nations. ‘Novelty and knowledge enhancement’ was an overarching motivation across the three nations. However, this factor scored higher for tourists from the USA compared to South Africa and the UK. Tourists from the UK placed a higher value on the ‘Nature experience’ and ‘escape’ motivations. South African tourists had no distinct motivations, although at item level ‘to rest and relax’ featured among the country’s top five motivations. Likewise, some sociodemographic and trip characteristics varied between nations. It is recommended that Zimbabwe should take cognisance of the key motivations, including inimitable attributes of tourists from different source markets, and develop customised products and marketing messages. Furthermore, network marketing, taking advantage of the high numbers of repeat visits, can be used to circumvent image related challenges bedevilling the country.

Keywords

• comparative assessment
• international tourists
• traditional source markets
• travel motivations
• Zimbabwe