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COVID-19 is a trigger event which is changing the complexion of African tourism and the directions of African tourism research. This article offers an overview and commentary on the state of African research produced during the uncertain times of 2020-2021 in specific response to the immediate impacts and changes which have been catalysed by the pandemic. The article is a progress report to capture and profile the body of focussed contributions on COVID-19 and tourism which have appeared for sub-Saharan Africa. Further, it is a contribution towards strengthening our understanding of tourism and change in the Global South. Overall, the discussion serves to highlight an emerging African scholarship which is engaged on a range of issues around three core themes of ramification, adaptation and transformation.

This study sought to determine the sociodemographic influences on residents' perceptions of tourism development in Zimbabwe. The study emanates from a concern over the lack of such a research angle in the context of subSaharan African tourism research. Adopting an explorative quantitative design, a structured survey was used to generate 246 valid responses from the residents in Harare. The results obtained showed that there were both similarities and differences in the perceptions of residents with different sociodemographic characteristics. The study brought to light that sociodemographic characteristics are an important variable in determining the influences of residents' perceptions of tourism development. This article offers developing destinations augmented insight into the influence of demographic characteristics on residents' perceptions of tourism development, as well as discernments respecting tourism planning, policy formulation, strategy implementation, and tourism marketing in transforming communities and enhancing destination's image.