| dc.description.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. | en_US |
