Tourists’ Activities and their Impacts on Chinhoyi Caves Heritage Site, Zimbabwe

Abstract

The growing interest in heritage tourism since the 1990s has increased tourist traffic and its related activities at heritage sites. Detrimental effects have been noted at some heritage sites prompting the need to protect such sites for tourism purposes. However; there are minimal studies on the impacts of tourists’ activities at heritage sites especially in developing countries. In Zimbabwe, Chinhoyi caves are one site that holds heritage value and tourists frequent it to partake in heritage tourism. This research is an empirical study which explores the impacts of tourist activities on heritage sites using a case study of the Chinhoyi caves. In-depth interviews were carried out to collect data from fifteen tourists and five employees of the Zimbabwe National Parks Authority stationed at the Chinhoyi Caves. With the aid of ATLAS.ti 8, the responses were extracted, presented and analysed. The main findings were that there are a number of both consumptive and non-consumptive tourist activities taking place at Chinhoyi Caves. These are having both positive impacts and negative impacts that need attention if the value of the heritage site is to develop sustainably for the benefit of future generations. These are new findings about tourism and its impacts on these heritage sites in Zimbabwe making them valuable for the sustainable development of such sites in Zimbabwe and beyond that might be facing similar challenges.