Browsing by Author "Weerasingha, G.B.I."

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    A Study on the Tourist Attractions in Colombo City
    (Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2015) Weerasingha, G.B.I.
    Colombo is the most populous city in Sri Lanka, with the population of 2,309,809 in 2012. Especially Colombo City is being developed including all the infrastructure facilities such as new star class hotels, residencies, restaurants, entertaining areas, gardens, shopping complexes, and transportation modes opening vast attractions for both domestic and foreign tourists. In cultural tourism both ancient and modern cultural aspects are attracted by the tourists. Colombo City the hub of Sri Lanka has been extremely blended with colonial, traditional, historical and even modern tangible and intangible heritages. The major objective of this research was to identify the foreign tourists’ perception regarding Colombo city as a tourist destination. The research focused on tourists’ motivations for visiting the city, major attractions and visitor satisfaction on the services and facilities related to travel and hospitality industry. Being a heritage city mixed with both ancient heritages and modern life style the city of Colombo has something to offer for anyone. Methodology The research was conducted to identify the tourists’ perception on the tourist attractions in Colombo city. Observation method was carried out with field observations, interviews and questionnaires. Some of the major cultural attractions at Colombo City were selected as the field to conduct the survey. The research sample was included 100 of foreign tourists who were randomly selected at various modern cultural attractions located in Colombo City including Floating Market, Liberty Arcade Square, Majestic City Complex, Liberty Plaza, Galle Fort Court, Galle Face Green, Race Court, ODEL shopping mall, Casinos, Tourist Hotels etc. 100 foreign tourists were given structured questionnaires which were entirely based on the visitor motivation, visitor satisfaction, visitor facilities, and tourist attractions in the city. Most of the tourists were individually interviewed to collect qualitative data regarding the visitors’ perception on the cultural attractions located at Colombo City. During the research both qualitative and quantitative data were gathered and they have been analyzed hereafter. Result and Discussion The foreign tourists are interviewed with structured questionnaires for getting their perception about the cultural attractions. Foreign tourists’ motivation to visit Colombo City was observed and the following figure illustrates various motivations with different scales to visit the city. (See Figure 1) Most of the foreigners are arriving at Colombo for the Business purposes including business conferences, trade exhibitions, meetings and other business related purposes. Still Colombo city, being the major commercialized city in the island bears priority in MICE tourism. Leisure purposed foreign tourists are recorded as 23% and they are highly attracted by the luxurious accommodation facilities and hospitalities service offered at the star class hotels in Colombo city and its periphery. Night life of the city has been attracted by 15% while 12% of tourists are arriving at Colombo with the purpose of shopping. Their major attractive shopping destinations were Majestic City, Liberty Plaza, Unity Plaza, Arcade Square, House of Fashion and Cool Planet. 17% of tourists are arriving at the city with educational purposes based on researches and academic purposes. They had mentioned in their comments that rather than the modern attractions or leisure based locations they are strongly attracted by the locations and sites where they can observe culture, history and arts, including the places such as Colombo National Museum, National Art Gallery, Colonial buildings at the city etc.