Abstract:
Post war development is one of the most important objectives for the public and governments, because the ultimate goal is to repatriate immigrants and to establish an ordinary life for new and former residents after the conflicts. Sri Lanka has more than twenty five year experiences regarding the poor tourism in war situation. Sri Lankan civil war has collapsed the economy and created negative externalities. Conversely, after end of the civil war tourism plays a significant role in Sri Lankan economy. Tourism image in Northern Province had change by war, during the last three decades. There for this research focused on potentials and pitfalls for post war tourism development in Mullaitivu area. The sequential mixed method (qualitative & quantitative) was adopted to carry out this study. Data gathering was conducted with five likert scale questionnaire, and structured interviews for primary data. Sample size 50 international tourists who visited to Mullaitivu area and 10 stakeholders who involved the tourism industry in Mullaitivu district and data analysis is used by descriptive and thematic analysis. The finding of this study highlighted present situation of tourism in Mullaitivu, identify the potentials and also identify the pitfalls for post war tourism development in Mullaiivu area. Based on the above finding this study depicts exact scenario of tourism development in Mullaitivu and how efficiently develop the potentials and to overcome barriers for tourism development offered. Further develop the potential and consider the barriers that need to be decline. This research has positive destination attributes which needs to develop further and stakeholder participation needs to accelerate to develop tourism industry in Mullaitivu district.
Key words: Tourism in Mullaitivu, Potentials, pitfalls, Post war tourism, Regional development
