Tourist Taxonomies of International Tourists Visiting Zimbabwe Using an Extended International Tourist Role Scale

Tourist typologies are generally criticized for having spatial biases because most of them were constructed in the context of the Western world. The study used an Extended International Tourist Role (EITR) scale to determine the typologies of international tourists to Zimbabwe. The augmented scale was subjected to reliability and validity tests, which yielded positive results. A factor-cluster analysis of 569 international tourists, yielded three distinct subgroups though with similar traits in certain dimensions. The clusters were named the independent tourist, the indifferent tourist, and the cautious new tourist. In the context of Zimbabwe, the cautious new tourist taxon is the most viable subgroup because of its size and available destination resources. However, for strategic planning, Zimbabwe should begin to embrace the independent tourist. The cautious new tourist is likely to mature into the independent tourist status, if the contemporary trends are anything to go by.