International Journal of Marketing Studies; Vol. 10, No. 2; 2018 ISSN 1918-719X E-ISSN 1918-7203 Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education 36 Forces Driving Purchasing Behaviour of Tourists Hotels Along Tourist-Agricultural Supply Chain in Zanzibar Kenneth M. K. Bengesi 1 & Juma O. Abdalla 2 1 Department of Policy Planning and Management, College of Social Sciences and Humanities, Sokoine University of Agriculture, Morogoro, Tanzania 2 Department of Agricultural Extension and Farmers Training, Kizimbani Agricultural Training Institute, Zanzibar, Tanzania Correspondence: Kenneth M.K. Bengesi, Department of Policy Planning and Management, Campus College of Social Sciences and Humanities, Sokoine University of Agriculture, P.O.Box 3035 Chuo Kikuu, Morogoro, TANZANIA. Tel: 255655282007. E-mail: kenneth.bengesi@sua.ac.tz Received: February 16, 2018 Accepted: April 4, 2018 Online Published: May 7, 2018 doi:10.5539/ijms.v10n2p36 URL: https://doi.org/10.5539/ijms.v10n2p36 Abstract This paper examined forces driving tourists’ hotels purchasing behaviour. The results revealed that the tourist hotels consider several factors before deciding to source vegetables and fruits from smallholder farmers. The most prominent factors for the tourist hotels to source vegetables and fruits were consistent quality, regular supply, compliance to legal practices, and hygiene conditions. Interestingly, proximity to the tourists’ hotels and competitive price of fruits and vegetables were not among important driving forces contributing to the choice of sourcing points. This suggests that the tourist hotels are willing to pay premium prices so long they are assured of quality and regular supply, compliance to legal practices and observe hygiene conditions. With the fact that smallholder farmers lack access to appropriate market information, produce at subsistence level and lack logistic infrastructure this call for a change of mind-set among smallholder farmers and position strategically to take advantage of emerging markets. Keywords: agriculture, emerging tourism markets, purchasing behaviour, tourism, supply chain 1. Introduction Tourism is certainly one of the huge and an important economic activity in the world, contributing a major part of the global economy. According to Lew (2011), tourism is among the top five sources of international export income for more than 80 per cent of countries in the world. International export encompasses all the receipts that a country receives from money that tourists spend at the destination. In 2013, travel and Tourism’s total contribution to the global economy rose to 9.5 per cent of global GDP (USD 7 trillion), created nearly 266 million jobs in the world and recorded faster growth than any other economic sectors (Mnguni & Giampiccoli, 2016; Du et al., 2016; Che Chou, 2013). Christie et al. (2013) pointed that tourism across sub Saharan Africa created 5.3 million direct jobs and contribute 2.7 per cent to the GDP. In this view, the sustained demand for Tourism, coupled with its ability to generate high levels of employment continues to prove its importance in economic development. For developing countries with high potential for tourism attraction like Tanzania and Zanzibar in particular; the importance of the tourism lies not only to its contribution to the economic growth but also in the fact that given the right circumstances the tourism growth can support structural foundations, influence the economic and cultural progress of society, and improving the welfare of the local population. In view of this argument, Du et al. (2016) and Belloumi (2010) echoed similar view that destinations use tourism as a way to use their comparative advantages in natural and cultural supply side resources and complementarity with other economic activities to stimulate local economy, generate foreign exchange, create jobs, and enhance government revenue through taxes. These views, imply that well planned tourism may yield multiple benefits to complement economic activities such as transport, agriculture, hotels, arts and leisure to mention a few. In view of the above, strengthening the linkage between tourism and other sectors especially agriculture becomes important for tourism to contribute significantly to the overall economic growth and poverty reduction in Zanzibar. This follows the fact that the agricultural sector in Zanzibar plays an important role in the economy because of its