Tourist Motivational Factors That Affect Tourist Visiting Decision-A Case of Sri Lanka

Abstract

With the globalization and the open market policies of different nations, the movement from one country to another has been drastically increased among the people. Out of the most sustainable industries in the world, the tourism industry is showing a significant landmark over the years. There is a trend in the global market towards tourism industry as many people are currently looking for self-fulfillment needs over basic needs (Maslow`s Hierarchy of Needs). Sri Lanka is possessing the geographical advantage over other countries with the natural beauty and peaceful environment within the local territory. After 30 years of war and the new development practices in modern Sri Lanka provide good insights to the foreigners to visit Sri Lanka. In this context the most important thing is to understand the reasons for choosing Sri Lanka over other countries and what exactly impact on their visiting decision. Therefore the main objective of this study is to understand what motivates a foreign tourist to visit Sri Lanka and what motivates on their visiting decision. This study will be based on push (Intrinsic) and pull (Extrinsic) motivation factors as those are the main driving motivational factors in the tourism industry. The sample population for this study was 100 foreign tourists and which have been selected from the departure section of the Bandaranayake International Airport. The data was gathered through structured questionnaire and Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) used to analyze the data. There were many surprising key findings of this study and it founded that Sri Lanka is an emerging destination towards sightseeing, sports activities and other leisure activities. Findings clearly showed that the tourist who visits Sri Lanka has very less motivation to stay at hotel and get the comfort of the hotel. Staying and relaxing at the hotel is not that much strong motivational factor in the Sri Lankan context. The findings will help many sectors in Sri Lanka such as hotel industry, travel and tourism industry, sports and leisure management industry, event management industry, to incorporate good improvements to their tourism products.