Symposia & Conferences
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Item The Effectiveness of Word of mouth in Generating Tourists to the Destination of Sri Lanka: A study with Special Reference to the City of Kandy(4th International Conference on Social Sciences 2018, Research Centre for Social Sciences, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2018) Senarathna, T.M.C.D.; Wijesaooriya, M.W.A.T.N.Tourism sector is one of the most important foreign exchange generating industries in Sri Lanka. On the other hand, the industry is highly based on services compared to other major industries in the country. Therefore, it generates a large amount of direct and indirect job opportunities to the Sri Lankan job market and contribute tremendously to resolve many problems in the country. Most tourists travel to Sri Lanka by finding details using different sources such as internet, books, magazines, and with the help of word of mouth through friends and relatives. Here, the word of mouth is simply what happens when a tourists’ interest in a destination’s product or service is reflected in their day-to-day conversations. If the travel experience is satisfactory to a tourist, the word of mouth creates a positive image of a destination. Majority of tourists rely on their friends and relatives’ words on travel experiences to get the best experience. The research problem of the study was “is the word of mouth a considerable factor in generating a large flow of tourists to Sri Lanka”. And also the main objective of the research was to identify the effectiveness of word of mouth in attracting tourists to the destination of Sri Lanka. The study was mainly based on quantitative and qualitative data, and randomly selected 50 tourists in the city of Kandy were interviewed and used structured questionnaires and conversations to gather data while referring to internet, books and magazines were also done. While 58 % of tourists responded that they have highly depended on their friends’ and relatives’ responses in selecting the destination of Sri Lanka to get maximum satisfaction out of the travel, 36% of the respondents referred to web-sites and social Media to explore the beauty, activities, regulations, people, history and culture of the particular destination to travel. Therefore, the word of mouth is playing a vital role in generating a high level of visiting by tourists to the country and services, facilities and friendliness of people highly contribute in creating a positive word of mouth with regard to Sri Lanka. Therefore, it is easy to create a positive word of mouth and well attracted image on the island of Sri Lanka by offering well-organized services and diversified products beyond the satisfaction, updating tourism relevant web-sites using heart touching photographs, documentaries and informationItem The Potentials in Promoting Ayurvedic Tourism as an Alternative Product in the City of Anuradhapura(4th International Conference on Social Sciences 2018, Research Centre for Social Sciences, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2018) Senarathna, T.M.C.D.Tourism industry is one of the exclusive foreign exchange generating industries in Sri Lanka. The industry has many potentials to answer lot of problems such as poverty, unemployment, less regional development of rural areas and the low advancement of infrastructure facilities of the country. To get rid of these issues, tourism products should be differentiated to attract more tourists to gain solutions for the above mentioned problems. Ayurvedic tourism which is the concept of tourism related to Ayurvedic medical treatments can be identified as one of the best tourism products that can be added value to differentiate the tourism product to generate more and more tourists to the country. Currently a large number of tourists who are travelling to Anuradhapura belongs to the group of senior citizens. Therefore, it is apparent that this alternative market product can immensely be promoted among this target market. The key objective of the research was to identify the potentials to promote Ayurvedic tourism in the city of Anuradhapura. The study was mainly based on quantitative and qualitative data and the sample was consisted of 50 tourists who were randomly selected in the Ancient city of Anuradhapura. It was revealed that, 68 % of tourists belonged 45-55 age group and it was identified that there was a strong possibility to promote Ayurvedic tourism among these aged people as it is one of the basic needs of these aged groups. Also 70% of them preferred to stay in Ayurvedic hotels while they are in Anuradhapura and 90% agreed that they like to purchase Ayurvedic products which strengthen them both physically and mentally. Enhancing the involvement of both government and private sector for creating an efficient and well-attracted product, updating tourism related web-sites showing the healing power of the Ayurvedic medicine, informing travel companies to include Ayurvedic products into their tour packages and introducing tourism promotional campaigns specially focused on Ayurvedic products to gain attention can be identified as the recommendations of the research