Sociodemographic influences on residents’ perceptions of tourism development in Zimbabwe

Abstract: This study sought to determine the sociodemographic influences on residents’ perceptions of tourism development in Zimbabwe. The study emanates from a concern over the lack of such a research angle in the context of sub-Saharan African tourism research. Adopting an explorative quantitative design, a structured survey was used to generate 246 valid responses from the residents in Harare. The results obtained showed that there were both similarities and differences in the perceptions of residents with different sociodemographic characteristics. The study brought to light that sociodemographic characteristics are an important variable in determining the influences of residents’ perceptions of tourism development. This article offers developing destinations augmented insight into the influence of demographic characteristics on residents’ perceptions of tourism development, as well as discernments respecting tourism planning, policy formulation, strategy implementation, and tourism marketing in transforming communities and enhancing destination’s image