A study on tourism industry amelioration and its sociocultural, economic impacts special reference with Arugambay area

Abstract

The contribution of the tourist industry to Srilanka's national economy is significant: tourism supports the economy currently with RS.65018 million and has a market share of 3.8 percent (Annual Statistical Report of Sri Lanka Tourism, 2010). There is still much to be done in terms of improving tourism in Srilanka. As Arugambay is at the core of the proposed development, the researcher considered it essential to attempt to identify and evaluate the perceptions and attitudes of the Arugambay peoples towards tourism, in Anticipation of arriving at a number of specific conclusions, with the further aim of making recommendations for the continuous improvement of tourism development in Arugambay. Those who work in the tourism sector at Arugambay had been interviewed by previous researchers. The overwhelming majority of those who do not work in the tourism industry were ignored. Such observations about the carried out in this area have made the researcher's work more difficult. The sample in this study was chosen randomly to be more representative of as many as possible of the aspects that needed to be explored in order to complement the work that has already been done in this particular area. Both descriptive and analytical data results were interpreted to attain some interesting findings about the perceptions of the Arugambay peoples of the sociocultural, economic impacts of tourism on their community. It was found that attitudes varied according to people's level of dependency on tourism and certain demographic variables. Data analysis supports the evidence that there are positive sociocultural, economic impacts of tourism on the Arugambay peoples. It can also be said that the benefits of tourism at Arugambay far exceed any negative consequences.