Abstract:
Tourism is regarded as one means of fostering regional economic development and
ameliorating these inequalities. Many destinations possess natural advantages that could form
the basis for regional competitive advantage through local and global networking, but have
experienced difficulty in drawing both domestic and international visitors away from the
popular destinations. The development of local and global networking for tourism firms is a
way of fostering competitive advantage in regional Sri Lanka. Tourism sector requires
network linkages due to having strong complementarities due to the characteristics it include.
This paper considers the potential for activating regional tourism networks and gaining
competitive advantage over other regions in the country. This is especially relevant with
recent development initiatives in the eastern province. There is much work to be done at a
micro-business level in fostering network development between tourism institutions such as
hotels, travel agencies, tour operators, airlines, tourism associations, and supportive tourism
activities. It was proposed that activating business networking is a suitable means of fostering
a structure within which related and supporting industries can interact. Through business
network initiatives local communities can be enabled to contribute to their own development.
A more self-sufficient ‗bottom-up‘ approach to regional development with horizontal
linkages incorporating private/public sector partnerships and partnerships between
international, national and locally owned businesses seems desirable in developing regional
tourism. The activation of business networks could support linkages between related and
supporting industries in gaining competitive advantages. In recommending networking
strategies the attitudes towards competitive advantage, competitive behavior and intention of
networking between tourism firms were measured among the main and supportive actors of
tourism in the region. Therefore, the successful tourism firms are the one which have strong
innovative local and global networks.
