Abstract:
Tourism has become a significant industry in both poor and rich economies because of its important impacts on economic, livelihoods and socio-cultural development. On the other hand, poverty reduction has become an important item on the tourism agenda.
In present, Badulla is a poor area, which has a glorious past and can have a glorious future too if steps are taken in the right direction. One of the sectors where this area has a great future is tourism which can play a very important role to reduce poverty and improve community development in rural areas. It is s hoped that sustainable tourism has the potential of directly contributing to community development through, among other things, provision of employment opportunities to local people as well as creation of markets for locally made goods.
This study investigated sustainable tourism and its role in community development and the study also investigated the benefits and use of "Pro Poor tourism" as a mechanism for economic development in developing countries, especially in SriLanka. For this study Badulla District have been chosen as the focus of the study.
A qualitative research method was employed because the nature of the study was descriptive due to the fact that most of the respondents were illiterate or semi illiterate. The sample of the study consisted of 60 respondents from the study areas. The methods of data collection that used in this study were basically observation, interview and literature review.
The study findings and analysis showed that sustainable tourism had contributed immensely in improving the general welfare of the local people through increased income. It has also reduced income poverty and community development by increasing local purchasing power. But as negative impact, the price of land, price of the commodities has been increased due to tourism. Finally, this study has come up with some suggestions for introducing pro poor tourism and implications for sustainability.
