Analyzing the International Tourists’ Destination Image Perception on Colombo City as a City Tourism Destination

Abstract

In tourism industry, the competitiveness among tourism destinations has become highly demanding. Niche tourism refers to approach that well-defined tourism product tailored to meet the interests of a particular tourist segment. And city tourism integrates many niche tourism segments together. Hence most cities of the world have already become the paramount tourism destinations. A large amount of existing and emerging cities are competing to enhance the destination image perception in order to attract more international tourists. Research. objective is to identify the potentials to promote Colombo city as a city tourism destination by analyzing the international tourists' destination image gap on Colombo city attributes. According to the Morgan table, a sample of 382 international tourists who visited Colombo city during the month of June 2016 were selected to conduct this survey by using convenience sampling technique. A descriptive survey among the international tourists was conducted with a structural questionnaire. EPI format (modified SERVQUAL) was used to obtain data from the respondents and to analyze the international tourists' destination image gap and the overall satisfaction rating regarding the Colombo city attributes. The numerous potentials have been identified which will be in capable of promoting Colombo city as a city tourism destination. And results suggest the importance of the new product development and service designing, service quality improvements, global promotional campaigns with the collaboration of social media marketing tool and government intervention to reduce the destination image gap and to enhance the tourist satisfaction.