Abstract:
Following the economic crisis and the Corona pandemic in Sri Lanka, the foreign
travel industry has exhibited a significant recovery, experiencing its most
substantial growth from January to April 2023. Therefore, Sri Lanka has a new
hope to rejuvenate itself by identifying and addressing new trends towards the
best and most competitive outcomes. The main objective of this research was to
identify the new trends in the Sri Lankan foreign travel industry. The data
collection for current research was based on interviews with foreign travelers who
obtained service from the visa section of the Sri Lankan Immigration and
Emigration Department within 3 days in May 2023. The data has been collected
using a structured questionnaire with the participation of 25 purposely selected
sample respondents. The data has been analysed using a SWOT analytical model,
coding systems and using a conceptual framework. In addition to that SPSS
software, Excel charts, and graphs are applied to further and clearer
understanding about the findings. The findings confirmed that 29% of foreigners’
who visit Sri Lanka plays a major role as Eco-tourists. The second finding is that
37% of them preferred to engage in environmental-related activities over their
holiday vacation. These major findings convince that Sri Lanka is moving
towards the concept of Eco-tourism as the best new trending opportunity in the
tourism industry. However, there are no positive results showing the development
of the paying-guest notion that has been introduced as a new concept in the Sri
Lankan tourism sector. Therefore, Sri Lanka seems to be slowing in its adaptation
to modernity in tourism industry compared to other competing countries.
However, 88.89% of foreign travelers have shown positive impression of Sri
Lanka as an attractive travel destination, while their ratings of services and
facilities are also growing favorable. This study provides a clue that, Sri Lankan
foreign travel industry has great potential to drive towards a sustainable future.
