Abstract:
The purpose of this research paper to investigate the perception of Trincomalee,' Sri Lanaka held by foreign and local tourists. The research will overlook inbound characteristics of Trincomalee, Sri Lanka and it will mainly concern the factors that induces the decision making process of tourists, their motivations, expectations and their needs. The objectives of this research are to identify the demographic profile of beach tourists and to identify the most & the least push and pull travel motivational factors of Beach tourist's arrival to Trincomalee. Mixed data analysis methods were employed in this research. The questionnaire was developed to reflect their travel motivation factors based on multiple choice questions, and it was distributed among 100 foreign and local tourists based on convenient sampling technique. The respondents were selected from Nilaveli, Uppuveli, Marble beach, Arisimale and Town beach of Trincomalee areas. The study shows that both push and pull travel motivational factors stimulate the higher Beach tourists' arrivals to Trincomalee, Sri Lanka. The mean ranking of the constructs within travel motives showed that, Seeking Relaxation and Fulfilling Prestige were regarded as the most and the least influential push and travel motivational factors, respectively. Among pull travel motivational dimensions, Natural Resources and Events and Activities were identified as the most and the least influential pull travel motivational factors, respectively. This study attempts to identify motivational factors of beach tourists to the Trincomalee as different tourist markets demonstrate different domains of behavior. This may have important marketing implications to the Trincomalee especially in terms of examination of motives in segmenting markets, designing promotional programs and decision making about destination development. Based on the study's findings, practical implications for tourism marketers are suggested and future research recommendations are provided.
