Abstract:
The Concept of sustainable development of tourism is one of the appropriate concepts related to tourism in the modern global tourism industry which has to meet social, environmental and economic requirements in order to fulfil the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations meeting their own needs. Mahapelessa Hot spring, also known as Madunagala Hot Spring is one of the major tourist attractions in the Southern province which is maintained by the Ruhunu Tourist Bureau. The local residents have started to be involved directly and indirectly with tourism activities by selling local foods and productions for travelers in temporary retail shops. Under the tourism development projects through the bureau, tourism infrastructure has been developed in year 2013 and the Madunagala Hot Water Spring Park has been launched with perfect site planning and with a vehicle park outside. The local residents who are sold goods in temporary shelters got permanent established shops for their businesses. A qualitative survey has done by verbally interviewing 25 retail shop holders among a total of 27 shops located at the Madunagala Hot Water Spring Park. During the survey it was identified that, only a very limited number of shops, such as11 of 27 shops are usually visited by customers. According to the land arrangement, other shops which are located far from the tourist activities suffer with problems of low selling and low customers even though there is a considerable site plan for the hot water spring park. The key objective of the survey is to identify the influence of weak site arrangements for local residents’ involvements in tourism and their bad outcomes .The highest percentage of shop owners, which is 88%, is women. Aggressive competition among other shops, relating grievance with customers, trying to sell any product to any person by craving are the bad outcomes of the issue and their only purpose is to get a commensurable income per a day. Even the authorities are not willing to change building structures. Selling products under a classification is one of the best solutions to solve these impacts but, the acceptances of the solution by local residents will be another problem with their educational background which is mostly insufficient.
