Prospects of Peer-to-Peer Accommodation Platforms in Urban Tourism in Zimbabwe

Peer-to-peer (P2P) marketplaces have grown tremendously in the last decade due to the wide adoption of the 4IR technologies. This has led to changes in the way tourism products like transport and accommodation are offered. In the accommodation sector, the eruption of platforms like Airbnb, Booking.com , Couchsurfing and HomeAway has changed the urban tourism landscape. Property owners in urban environments are taking advantage of these platforms to rent out their properties to visiting tourists. This study, therefore, seeks to ascertain the prospects of such platforms in urban tourism in Zimbabwe. The research adopted a critical literature review approach from different contexts to explore the connection between P2P marketplaces and urban tourism. The results reveal that even though there are numerous studies done on urban tourism, very few studies have been done focusing on the P2P accommodation platforms and their development in the context of urban tourism. It can be concluded that regardless of the various challenges facing urban tourism in Zimbabwe, there is potential for growth of P2P accommodation platforms. This chapter contributes to the sustainability discourse by focusing on how P2P platforms impact the economic conditions, social well-being and environmental issues in urban tourism environments.