Tourism Impacts on Socio-Economic Development of Residential Community in Ella Destination, Sri Lanka

Abstract

One tool for economic development is the tourist sector. Tourism destination management is required at local, regional, and national levels to profit. The local population plays a significant role in the tourism industry since they serve as the tourists' hosts. Tourism must be promoted to maximize industrial benefits. Positive outcomes must be enhanced, while negative consequences must be controlled. Therefore, this study aims to identify the economic and socio-cultural impacts of tourism on the Ella destination. This research is focused on the homestay community, because it is the main income-generating source for the resident community in Ella, Sri Lanka. The researcher selected 175 registered homestay business owners in Ella destination, Sri Lanka through a simple random sampling strategy. This study applied a Likert scale questionnaire to collect primary quantitative data for this study. Secondary data was gathered from past theses, journal articles, newspaper articles, the SLTDA website, and central bank annual reports. The SPSS software was utilized to analyze the gathered data through questionnaires. The researcher identified that there are eight main indicators that affect the socio-economic development of the homestay business community in Ella, Sri Lanka. These are local culture, local services, the community’s lifestyle, alcoholism, drugs, and prostitution, employment and income opportunities, investment & spending, infrastructure, and tourist arrivals to Ella. As per the findings, the researcher recommends that homestay tourism business owners need to invest In eco-friendly business operations, because eco-friendly hospitality services are the main trends in the current global tourism and hospitality business Sector. Also, homestay business owners should know that practical knowledge is highly significant in the tourism and hospitality sector business environment. In the future, community capacity development, Identification of a unique promotional mechanism, and eco-friendly business operations will be needed to manage negative impacts.