The tourism - Foreign direct investment nexus: Empirical evidence from Zimbabwe (2009-2015)

The extent of research into the determinants of foreign direct inflows to particular locations is expansive and diverse; however, little is known of the influence of country images as non-financial determinants on the inflow of foreign capital. In contributing to this body of knowledge, this article aims to explore the influence of tourism as a non-financial nation image determinant of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Zimbabwe. The relationship between tourism and the four distinct forms of FDI opportunities in Zimbabwe, market-, resource-, efficiency- and strategic-asset seeking is examined. Empirical data were generated from a final purposively sampled survey population of 305 foreign investors who had applied to invest in Zimbabwe between January 2009 and April 2015. Multiple statistical techniques were employed including exploratory factor analysis and multiple regression using STATISTICA 12 software. As it emerged, eight variables were identified as constituting Zimbabwe's tourism nation brand image. Empirically, the results of this article affirm the influence of tourism as a non-financial determinant of market-, efficiency- and strategic asset-seeking FDI opportunities in Zimbabwe.