An organisational culture framework in support of Ecotourism in Zimbabwe

Abstract

Tourism (and its subsectors) is a primary source of economic development for developing countries. Third World economies, in particular, are known to have little else than their natural resources (ecotourism) to depend upon for their development. In Zimbabwe, which is a Third World economy, ecotourism, therefore, presents itself as a special area of study. The concept of ecotourism is relatively new to Zimbabwe. Although the country can be said to have a well-established natural potential for ecotourism, it forms only a subsector of the mainstream tourism industry. In the past, the country enjoyed several significant benefits of ecotourism (both social and economic) but unfortunately these ceased to be realised, causing the performance of the country as one of the most prominent ecotourism destinations in Southern Africa to deteriorate. The aim of this study is to resuscitate the performance of the ecotourism industry in Zimbabwe by incorporating an organisational culture in its ecotourism practices. Developing an organisational culture has been known to be instrumental in the success of several business organisations; therefore, the study proposes that the development of an organisational culture in ecotourism practice in Zimbabwe may turn around the currently unsatisfactory performance of ecotourism, and assist in achieving the desired levels of performance envisaged by the management/leadership of the tourism industry. The literature review conducted established the elements that made up an organisational culture as well as ecotourism. These were then amalgamated in order to come up with an ecotourism organisational culture. The qualitative data collection methods of interviews (with a total of ten participants) and document analysis were used. The findings indicated that those involved with the practice of ecotourism were aware of what an ecotourism organisational culture should comprise, since their responses corresponded with the information available in existing literature. There was, however, a marked non-compliance with this culture in the ecotourism sector of Zimbabwe (pointing to the lack of an organisational culture), which was found to hamper the optimal performance of ecotourism. Strategies that could be adopted to enable the implementation of an organisational culture were suggested, and, in conclusion, an organisational culture framework was proposed that should be supportive of ecotourism in Zimbabwe.