Challenges and Opportunities for Community Based Tourism Development in Kithulgala
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Date
2020
Journal Title
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Publisher
Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka
Abstract
Tourism is one of the world’s fastest-growing industries and it is a major source of
income for many countries. Community-Based Tourism (CBT) concept relates more
specifically to tourism operations involving local communities, taking place on their lands
and oriented on their cultural and natural resources and attractions. This study especially
focused on identifying challenges, opportunities for CBT development in Kithulgala, and
particularly intended to study the community perception towards CBT development in
Kithulgala. This study adopted a mixed-methods approach and data were gathered
through questionnaires and interviews. Two separate questionnaires were used gathered
data from hoteliers, tour operators, and tourists. The convenience sampling method was
used to collect data from 100 hoteliers, operators, and 50 tourists, and 10 local community
members were interviewed. Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive and
exploratory factor analysis with the support of SPSS and qualitative data were analysed
using thematic analysis. According to the results, lack community interest, lack of
government, lack of awareness and training, lack of marketing and promotional activities
and lack of infrastructure identified were identified as challenges and there were several
opportunities identified such as increasing revisit intention, improvements of desire to
explore remote locations, introducing novel adventure-based activities, focusing on
positive recommendations of the visitors and providing facilities to different experience
about local culture. There should be some implications for the development of tourism in
Kithulagla, product diversification, and quality enhancement, develop marketing and
promotion through social media and company websites, and increase government
involvement.
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Keywords: Community based tourism, Challenges, Opportunities, Community perception
Description
Keywords
Hospitality Management, Tourism Industry, Tourism Management, Event Management