Browsing by Author "Tharanga, M.A."

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    Perception Differences of Socio- cultural Impacts of Tourism: A Study with Reference to Demographic Factors in Hikkaduwa Region
    (Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2013) Tharanga, M.A.; Weerakoon, W.M.P.G.C.
    Tourism is often referred to as the world’s largest industry and regarded as a mean of achieving development in destination areas (Sharpley, 2002). The perception is a process by which people translate sensory impressions into a coherent and unified view of the world around them. Though necessarily based on incomplete and unverified information, perception is equated with reality for most practical purposes and guides human behavior in general. Ap (1992) and Lankford (1994) indicate that the perceptions and attitudes of residents toward the impacts of tourism tend to be a key planning and policy consideration for the successful development and operation of existing and future projects. According to Pizam and Milman (1984) “tourism is contributing to the changes in value systems, individual behavior, family relationships collective lifestyles, moral conduct, creative expressions, traditional ceremonies and community organization”. Further, in a study using segmentation analysis examining residents’ attitudes toward tourism in Scotland from a socio-demographic perspective, Brougham and Butler (1981) found that there are significant differences in residents’ attitudes related to local and personal characteristics, with tourist contact, length of residence, age and language. Moreover, in a study measuring residents’ attachment levels in a host community in New Braunfels, Texas, Um and Crompton (1987) found that the more attached a resident was to his or her community in terms of birthplace, heritage, and length of residence, the less favorably he or she perceived tourism impacts. Similarly, the results of the study of Kusadasi et al. (2002) witness a significant relationship between age and length of residence and attitude toward tourism development. In terms of length of residence, Girard and Gartner (1993) discovered that both long-term and short-term second homeowners appreciated the availability of goods and services from increased tourism, but long-term residents tended not want to see an increase in tourism development in their study in Wisconsin. Tourism industry has a great impact on socio-cultural aspects of a country (Bandara, 2001). With reference to the past research findings it was clear that, there are different ideas in relation to the perception on social and cultural impacts of tourism and this may be due to contextual differences and methodological differences. Hence, this study was focusing on residents’ perception on social and cultural impacts of tourism in Hikkaduwa, which is a rapidly growing tourism zone of the country. Therefore, main objective was to examine the perceptual differences of residents’ on socio-cultural impacts of tourism in Hikkaduwa tourism zone in terms of demographic factors of residents. Methodology A random sample of 100 residents from Hikkaduwa region was selected for the study and the principle resident of the household was given with the questionnaire. The structured questionnaire used to collect data was comprised with two main sections and section -1 was focusing on the demographic information of the resident and the section-2 was comprised with 5 point Likert Scale questions to measure the perception on socio-cultural impacts of tourism. The data were analyzed by using non-parametric tests of Mann-Witney U test when there are two categories in the independent variable and Kruskalwallis test when there are more than two categories in the independent variable.
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    Residents’ Perception on Socio-Cultural Impacts of Tourism with Reference to Hikkaduwa Region
    (Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2013) Tharanga, M.A.
    The purpose of this study was to investigate residents' perceptions on the socio¬cultural impacts of tourism of Hikkaduwa. Simple random sampling technique and questionnaire was used to select the sample to collect data. In analyzing data Mann-Whitney and Kruskal Wallis tests was used. The results from the Mann-Whitney and Kruskal Wallis tests indicated that the Hikkaduwa residents' perceptions toward positive socio-cultural impacts of tourism were different in terms of their income level and age. Perceptions on negative socio-cultural impacts were different in terms of their residents' time duration in the area. The results from the Mann-Whitney and Kruskal Wallis tests indicated that the Hikkaduwa residents' perceptions toward positive socio-cultural impacts of tourism were not different in terms of their gender, educational level, employment status, place of the employment, marital status and residents' time duration in the area. The results from the Mann-Whitney and Kruskal Wallis tests indicated that the Hikkaduwa residents' perceptions toward negative socio-cultural impacts of tourism were not different in terms of their gender, age, educational level, employment status, place of the employment, marital status and income level.