Hidden Motives of Domestic Female Travelers to have Pleasure Travel Experiences in Sri Lanka: A Case Study of Kandy Tourist Region

Abstract

This study focuses on the hidden motives of domestic female travelers to have pleasure travel experience in Sri Lanka. The tourism industry of Sri Lanka is becoming increasingly important in terms of its contribution to the GDP, employment generation and related economic consequences. Even the government of Sri Lanka has given a prominent place for the tourism industry in their economy. After defeating terrorism in 2009, tourism showed rapid growth rate and both international and domestic travelers travel in large numbers. Today, women play a dominant role in the world tourism scenario. There is a shortage of research looking specifically at women and their pleasure travel behavior. Females are thought to have diverse expectations to have pleasure travel, play a major role in decision making and have different attitudes toward travel. A number of travel motives were derived through the literature review and eight motives were chosen to analyze the strength of decision making power of travelers. The researcher did this study as a case study by focusing on the Kandy tourist region and gathered required information through questionnaires, and simple method of analysis was employed to identify the strength of each and every motive factor. The findings showed that a large number of female travelers travel to “Spend leisure time with their family”, “Release working stress”, and “Visit friends and relatives” while a small number of female travelers have traveled to “Strengthen the family bonds” and “Do it as a annual hobby”.