Abstract:
Tourism is a mainstream economic activity in Sri Lanka. However, Sri Lanka currently
has less attention to domestic tourism and focuses on international tourism. Domestic
tourism statistics are scarce, from tourist counts to profiling in Sri Lanka. The tourism
industry in Sri Lanka has recently undergone its worst crisis in history, with all the
tourism stakeholders reporting little or no business. Except this, a limited number of
tourism businesses occur in the off-season also. Therefore, it is beneficial to develop
the domestic tourism industry, which international tourist arrivals may decline under
these circumstances. Domestic tourism development is essential to continue tourism in
Sri Lanka successfully. The selected area is the South East dry zone, the most popular
tourist zone among domestic tourists, including Kataragama sacred city, Yala and
Udawalawe national parks. The Researcher used the qualitative approach, and the data
were collected through in-depth interviews as the primary data collection method by
using convenience-sampling methods from 20 respondents. The collected data was
analyzed using descriptive techniques. The study found the salient features of domestic
tourism as visiting religious and leisure purposes, less length of stay (one night),
travelling weekends and holidays using private transportation, seeking familiar low-
cost accommodations with minimal expenses, and less awareness of travel preparation
and concern leading destination. Lack of adequate sanitation and infrastructure,
unavailability of awareness programmes and low-cost quality lodges and restaurants,
transportation and accessibility difficulties, the effect of prices, less government
support and coordination, behaviour and characteristics of domestic tourists are
identified as problems to develop domestic tourism. Enhance government intervention
to develop facilities, develop programs and create propaganda methods among
domestic tourists, and establish recreational activities in addition to the attractions.
Building relationships among tourism service providers, administrative parties, and
proper training and awareness for service providers are emphasized as
recommendations for develop domestic tourism from this study.
