Martin Wickramasinghe Folk Museum and its contribution towards the tourism industry

Abstract

This study focuses on discussing the contribution of Martin Wickramasinghe Folk Museum to the tourism industry of Sri Lanka. Tourism is a widely spread industry which gains high economic benefits to a country. Sri Lanka, as a developing country has paid attention to this beneficial industry. Sri Lankan culture is one of the leading factors among tourist attractions. Museums are significant elements of cultural tourism because they provide cultural awareness for their visitors. In addition, many tourism authorities and tour operators use museums as an attractive way of entertainment. Martin Wickramasinghe Folk Museum is a significant component among Sri Lankan museums due to its collection. This unique collection is consisted of traditional folk culture, which has the ability to provide education on many areas of traditional local communities such as rituals, literature, folk drama and arts, mask industry, traditional handicrafts, folk sports, folk music, traditional fishing industry and much more. The problem of this research was to find the impact of Martin Wickramasinghe Folk Museum on tourism industry in Sri Lanka. The objectives of the research were identifying the different sources of tourist attractions, the impact of Martin Wickramasinghe Folk Museum on tourism industry and the potentials to develop it in cultural tourism in Sri Lanka.The research uses both primary and secondary data for the purpose. According to the gathered data it was found that inspite of many potentials it has the Martin Wickramasinghe Folk Museum contributes very little to the tourism industry in Sri Lanka.