The study investigates the travel motivations, satisfaction and loyalty of tourists visiting a destination (under distress). Furthermore, the current study examines the challenges faced by tourists when visiting politically and economically unstable destinations, such as Zimbabwe. Drawing upon a sample of international tourists that visited Zimbabwe’s popular destinations, the results showed that tourists are motivated by scenery, solitude, excitement and thrills as well as social dimensions. The critical challenges of visiting a distressed destination were also identified, and key among them include higher prices and excessive police roadblocks. The travel motivation dimensions and challenges were identified using exploratory factor analysis. Further analyses were done using correlations and regression analyses. Both linear and non-linear relationships were observed and discussed. Thus, the study yields essential results regarding the nature of travel motivations, satisfaction and loyalty in destinations with distress, as well as the challenges tourists face during their visit and stay.

Background: Tourism in Zimbabwe has been affected by politics for more than two decades following the contested land-reform programme that was done in the year 2000. Therefore, understanding the destination competitiveness of Zimbabwean tourism is crucial for optimising tourist arrivals in the country as this industry is still contributing to the economy amid the political challenges.Aim: Given the importance of destination competitiveness, in the era of rising global competition, this study examined the factors that make Zimbabwe a competitive tourist destination, regardless of its political challenges.Setting: The study used data collected from hospitality and tourism managers for establishments in Victoria Falls, Great Zimbabwe, the Eastern Highlands and Harare. These are considered the major tourist destinations in Zimbabwe.Methods: Data were collected using a quantitative design from 301 tourism and hospitality managers.Results: The suppliers rated natural attractiveness, cultural attractiveness and human resources as critical dimensions contributing to the competitiveness of Zimbabwe. Significant to this study was the finding that perceptions differ depending on the type of establishment.Conclusion: As competition between destinations in Africa is growing, understanding the dimensions influencing destination competitiveness is invaluable, because it enables destination managers to focus on unique critical dimensions to sustain a competitive advantage.

Assessing destination competitiveness from a tourist perspective has been limited, especially for distressed destinations such as Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe has been facing ongoing political and economic challenges for more than two decades which puts pressure on the growth of the tourism industry. However, all destinations compete in the same space for tourists’ attention, forcing marketers to continuously develop strategies to enhance competitiveness and increase tourist returns and recommendations. This paper focuses on identifying competitiveness factors that influence tourists’ intention to return and recommend. Based on a sample of 450 international tourists to Zimbabwe, results show that unique to a distressed destination, the residents’ hospitality and friendliness is the most important predictor for the intention to return. This emphasises the role of residents in making the destination more competitive and attractive. General amenities, attractions and destination management are also significant predictors of return intentions. Tourists' intentions to recommend are largely predicted by the destination's resources. Encouraging visitors to revisit and recommend can assist a distressed destination in increasing visitor numbers on a limited marketing budget. Understanding these factors could also help managers to improve the negative image of the destination.

Purpose: The success of tourism destinations is in many cases measured from a competitive advantage perspective, not from a collaborative advantage perspective, which limits the possibilities of destination marketing in a collaborative cross-border context. Currently, the marketing efforts of Victoria Falls are highly fragmented as each country promotes the attraction separately. The purpose of this paper is to explore the cross-border destination marketing possibilities and realities of Victoria Falls from a demand and supply side perspective.Design/methodology/approach: A quantitative approach was applied in this study, with two separate surveys being conducted. Data for the demand side were collected by means of a questionnaire that was distributed by fieldworkers, while data for the supply side were collected online. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics, factor analyses and one-way analysis of variance.Findings: Five specific tourist motivations for visiting Victoria Falls were identified using demand data, of which sightseeing and destination attributes were the most important. Significant differences were found for tourists’ cross-border experiences using different border access points. Using supply data, challenges and opportunities of cross-border marketing were analysed. The most important opportunity was identified as cooperation, while the key challenges were economic and policy related. It is important to see the bigger picture and how cooperation can benefit both countries, which is unfortunately not currently the case for Zambia and Zimbabwe.Practical implications: There is a need for tourism destinations to shift from competition-based strategies to collaboration-based strategies in order to be successful. Cross-border marketing requires that each country understands tourists’ motivations and experiences. For Zambia and Zimbabwe to increase their tourist arrivals, income and investment opportunities, both countries must move away from isolating their marketing efforts of Victoria Falls. It is important to look beyond the individual benefits for each country and focus on the combined benefits. The challenges identified in this study must be addressed if Zambia and Zimbabwe’s cross-border marketing of Victoria Falls is to be effective. The integration of demand and supply views is thus critical for cross-border marketing to be effective and successful.Originality/value: Research on cross-border destination marketing of shared border attractions is limited. With regard to Victoria Falls, such research has never been explored in an academic context. This study has value for destination marketers of Zambia and Zimbabwe, especially for attractions that are shared between their borders such as Victoria Falls and Kariba Dam. Additionally, the study has implications for attractions that are shared across the borders of southern African countries like Zimbabwe, South Africa and Mozambique, as well as other attractions shared between borders in the global context.