Abstract:
Tourism is a booming industry in Sri Lanka, Ella is recognized as one of the attractive destinations and recently it became popularized due to experiencing the unique geographical features and authentic local life. Earlier Ella was identified as a sleepy village in the Badulla district due to the isolated nature and plenty of natural attractions. But at present, Ella has been transformed into a bustling tourist town. Therefore the concept of sustainability for the Ella area is more significant. Basically Sustainability concept become successful when stakeholders are more aware about that. It creates a platform to enhance the community awareness and involvement programs for local communities to understand and gain from the potential benefits of tourism. Therefore, investigating about the community perception is a good tool which can use for plan high awareness and involvement. Studying about the sustainable business practices of hoteliers in Ella area and examining the community perception on sustainable business practices of hoteliers in Ella area are the objectives of conducting this study. Data for the research were collected from 150 community people and 15 hotels in the Ella area by using the convenience sampling technique and simple random sampling technique and two separate questionnaires were distributed among the community and registered hotels in Ella area. The analytical techniques used in the study are descriptive statistical analysis and multiple linear regression was used to find out most significant sustainable business practice according to community perception in hotels. This research identified the sustainable business practices, according to the research findings. Further, these findings implied that there was overall moderately high community perception regarding the sustainable business practices of hoteliers in Ella area. Furthermore, findings implied that environmentally sustainable business practices were the most significant factor, according to the community perception. Therefore hoteliers should highly concern on the environment and all the other sustainable business aspects to ensure that good community perception on their sustainable business practices.
