Abstract:
Over the past years, tourism participation has grown from being a luxury to
a basic need that every human should enjoy. In developed countries, various
mechanisms have been implemented to help local people to actively participate in
tourism first as domestic tourists and later as international tourists. In developing
countries, domestic tourism has been overlooked leading to it being underdeveloped
and under-researched. Using qualitative methodology where in-depth interviews
were used to collect data from 45 conveniently selected domestic tourists and
tourism suppliers the study sought to analyse Zimbabwe’s domestic tourists travel
trends. Study findings revealed that the travel trends were characterised by prefer
ence for particular destinations, destinations connectivity, activities, travel times,
travel parties and specific spending patterns. It was concluded that Zimbabweans are
active domestic tourists though they participate mainly as informal travellers whose
travel trends are not tracked and accounted for in formal tourism documentation.
