Residents’ perceptions and attitudes towards urban tourism product offerings in Harare, Zimbabwe

Abstract: The main objective of the study in this article was to evaluate the perceptions of some Harare residents on urban tourism product offerings, particularly with regards to the current state of tourism product offerings and their contribution to the residents’ livelihoods. A questionnaire technique was used to meet the objective of the study, in which the residents’ perceptions were measured on a five-point Likert scale. A total of 246 respondents were interviewed, with the findings proving that their perceptions about tourism offerings were generally negative. The results show that the highest perception score was for the item “the current tourism policy of Harare allows for the residents to engage in tourism activities” (2.72), whereas the lowest perception score was for the item “I am happy with the current quality of tourism offerings in Harare” (1.88). With regards to the results, the study concludes that there could be a lack of STD, which is considered an overall objective of tourism development, and this raises concerns in relation to the well-being of the residents in Harare. With regard to the results, the study identified the ZTA as the main stakeholder with the mandate to address such issues identified in the study, in which three recommendations were put forward: (1) To formulate a tourism policy that promotes effective community involvement; (2) to promote local investment in tourism, which could serve to attract the community members and to boost their participation in tourism activities; and (3) to promote domestic tourism to the residents in such a way as to change how the residents perceive tourism offerings in the country