Analysis of Tourism Destination Competitiveness in Nuwara Eliya Region; from Supplier Perspective

Abstract

Destination is important factor that determine the number of visitation of tourists to the area as the choice of destination selection for holiday. Tourism will achieve a profitability position on the tourism market if destination recourses are managed duly and if a destination is advisable of gaining and maintaining competitive advantages. According to the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) statistical report 2016, tourist occupancy rate in high country gradually increased from 2005 to 2016, by 36.6%-75.24%. As well as Nuwara Eliya and Rathnapura are major tourism destination in high country. This study mainly focuses on analysis of existing destination competitiveness in Nuwara Eliya Region to identify the tourism potential and future improvements from supplier perspective. The model has been developed based on the five destination attractive determinants in tourist destination. According to the model investigate that the Destination competitiveness is the dependent variable and under that there were five sub independent variables, inherited resources, created resources, supporting factors, destination management, and situational conditions. This study is useful to tourism stakeholders and industry managers / personnel as well as it serve as a guide for other destinations seeking to understand their competitiveness. Research is mostly based on Primary data and researcher used convenience sampling method was used to collect the data from the 50 tourism industry stakeholders who are in the Nuwara Eliya region. Data were analyzed by using SPPSS. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation analysis and the multiple linear regression analysis were used to analyze the data. The results revealed that destination management and situational condition are existing destination attractive determinants in Nuwara Eliya region .as well as there is a positive relationship between destination attractive determinants and destination competitiveness in Nuwara Eliya region and created resources are the most significant destination attractive determinate out of the five determinants Key words: Destination attractive determinants, tourism industry stakeholders, Destination competitiveness