Abstract:
It is a well known fact that tourism is a sector that can contribute to the economic growth of a region. Moreover, tourism produces social benefits to the region (i.e. small and medium sized enterprises' development, creation of new jobs, improvement of infrastructure etc.). Culturally, tourism is said to be an element of community enrichment. This paper focuses on the tourism sector and its impacts on the socio-economic being of the host community in Polonnaruwa archaeological city. Descriptive method of inquiry was of most appropriate to approach the present research problem and was adopted in the study. The first objective of this study is to identify, select, and analyze the socio-economic impacts of tourism in Polonnaruwa archaeological city. The second objective is to present the impacts in context of changing business environment. And the last objective is to develop strategies for economic progress in a society. In this research work previous reports, theses, literatures and reviews were studied to get an idea about the socio¬economic impacts of tourism in Polonnaruwa archaeological city. Qualitative research method is used in this single case study. The main data collection method is used by conducting semi structured interviews via telephone with experts from various fields, questionnaire survey, and direct observation. Literature review is used as a source for secondary data. The results of this research indicate that there are socio-economic impacts of tourism on Polonnaruwa archaeological city and their roles towards economic prosperity of Polonnaruwa archaeological city. In addition, a set of strategies was formulated in this research that leads towards socio-economic development in Polonnaruwa archaeological city.
