Zimbabwe tourism branding in perspective: Can the undiscovered tourism gems be the panacea to destination competitiveness?

Abstract

The macro-economic and political challenges experienced in Zimbabwe in the last decade have impacted negatively on the competitiveness of Zimbabwe as a tourist destination. However the new political and economic dispensation ushered through the Government of National Unity (GNU) has created stable conditions thereby bringing in a new lease of life for the Zimbabwe’s tourism sector to rebrand itself. This paper proposes that in this rebranding exercise Zimbabwe can exploit its undiscovered tourist gems to regain competitiveness. These undiscovered tourist gems include culture of the BaTonga people, the Shangaai people, and farm or agro-tourism in the Eastern Highlands, Chimanimani area and Masvingo in terms of wildlife, Domboshava and Chiredzi in the lowveld as noted from the research. A descriptive research design was used because the primary objective was to describe the effects of the dynamic interaction between tourism branding, industry environment and its characteristics on tourism performance. The paper proposes that the rebranding strategy, rather than being only an implementation strategy for image promotion, relates to a way of understanding the changing branding process within a tourist destination.