Socio-Economic Determinants of Wildlife Tourism Affecting on Tourism Service Suppliers- Special Reference to Ruhuna Yala National Park and Horton Plains National Park
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Date
2018
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Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka
Abstract
Wildlife tourism had gained much priority recently. Wildlife tourism involves activities that interact with wildlife, mostly in national parks and protected areas. Ruhuna Yala national park and Horton Plains national park are the most popular national parks for wildlife tourism in Sri Lanka. Therefore due to the highest number of tourist arrivals impact on wildlife and environment is negative. Over visitation had laid the foundation for further problems and identifying the factors that will effect on Wildlife tourism is important. Researchers had identified an empirical gap in the context. There are no researches regarding socio-economic determinants of wildlife tourism that effect on tourism service suppliers. The objective of this research study is to identify socio-economic factors of wildlife tourism affecting on tourism service suppliers in the Ruhuna Yala national park and Horton Plains national park. Primary data were gathered through self-administered questionnaire. A sample of 100 tourism service suppliers selected using multi-stage sampling method from both Ruhuna Yala national park and Horton Plains national park through. In order to achieve the objective of this research, the researcher conducted exploratory factor analysis method and found five wildlife tourism factors affect on tourism service suppliers. Reliability of this research study is 0.815. Findings revealed that community health and safety, host community, investment, social cohesion and income distribution are the factors that effect on the tourism service suppliers. Further, based on the factors, researcher recommends maintaining the code of conduct, ensuring the CSR activities by tourism establishments and implement of a health policy, confirmation of fair income distribution and encouraging foreign investments can be used to increase the favorable environment for tourism service suppliers to perform a memorable experience to tourist.
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Keywords
Hospitality Management, Tourism Management, Events Management