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.
