Does Begging Add Flavour to Tourism Destinations in Sri Lanka?
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Date
2019
Authors
Wijesundara, W.G.S.R.
Danthanarayana, C.P.
Idroos, A.A.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka
Abstract
Begging has been identified as a major types of tourist harassment in many destinations in the world. And also, it is considered as a survival activity conducted by people who lack with other categories of income generating activities. Hence, various forms of begging exit in many tourism destinations treating it as a profitable profession from the beggars’ perspective and as a harassment from tourists’ perspective. As a popular tourist destination, currently, Sri Lanka faces this uncontrollable social and economic problem. Therefore, this study focus to identify the begging types and to analyze the tourists’ perspective on begging types exist in tourism destinations in Sri Lanka. The research area for the study was south coastal belt due to high number of tourist arrival and the many tourist harassment reported from the area. Tourists visiting south coastal belt being the research population, the sample was 200 tourists which were selected through stratified sampling technique. Primary data was collected through interviews and observations and data was analyzed using qualitative method. The results revealed that the most exist begging types were disabled, children, adult, busker and performance etc. Many respondents of the study agreed that begging forms like performance, vending and busker etc., represents the local culture and tradition by adding a flavor to the destination. Therefore, future research should be focused on quality enhancement of positive begging forms and reducing negative images traditionally associated with begging.
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Keywords
Tourism Management, Hospitality Management, Human Resource Development