Tourist perspectives of the culinary tourism product of Zimbabwe

Culinary tourism has necessitated the development and use of local food as a gateway to a destination's cultural heritage. In culinary tourism, tourists travel to experience unique and authentic culinary traditions. The uniqueness is in the manner in which the cuisine is prepared, produced and presented. Destinations are using their local foods to bring out that uniqueness, luring tourists to visit them. However, in Zimbabwe the destination is seemingly less visible as an attraction on local food. Since time immemorial, tourist resort areas like Victoria Falls have been the main attraction for tourists visiting Zimbabwe. Besides the provision of local foods such as game meat, mushrooms, fish and local vegetables and a few food activities held, not much is known about the destination's culinary heritage. In fact, culinary tourism is still in its infancy in Zimbabwe. This study therefore used a quantitative research methodology to explore the culinary heritage of Zimbabwe. Data was collected from local and international tourists in Victoria Falls and Harare using a closed ended questionnaire. The quantitative data was analysed using SPSS version 23, Findings indicated that culinary tourism was not yet an attraction for tourists visiting Zimbabwe. The results showed that though most hotels and restaurants were providing indigenous cuisines, there was limited variety, the prices were not favourable, and the cuisines' authenticity was also questionable. Implications of these results was that a lot needs to be done to illuminate the uniqueness of Zimbabwe's culinary heritage.