Tourism and regional development: special reference to Ampara district

Abstract

Tourism is a main strategy for a developing region. If a region is naturally beautiful for any reason it is the capital for the region for development. Ampara Coastal Belt is one of the regions that have attractions for tourism industry. This study attempts (1) to know the preference of tourist arrival; (2) to identify the regional developmental causes for preference of tourist arrival; (3) to find the association between preference of tourist arrival and regional developmental activities; (4) to prove the strength of association between preference of tourist arrival and regional developmental activities. This study considered 100 public for getting their opinion about tourism on regional development using convenient sampling method. Questionnaire was designed to collect data. Non- parametric analyses were carried out in this study. Results of the frequency analysis disclosed that 75% of people prefer tourist arrival in Ampara Coastal Belt (ACB). People prefer tourist arrival for regional development activities. Test results revealed that values of Pearson Chi-Square between preference of tourist arrival and regional development activities vary between 22.222 to 77.778 with degrees of freedom of 2 cum Sig. values of 0.000. These values witness that preference of tourist arrival has association with regional development activities. Values of Phi, Cramer's V and Contingency Coefficient for preference of tourist arrival and regional developmental activities vary between 1.000 to 0.471 with Sig. values of 0.000. These values explain that These values witness that preference of tourist arrival has “moderate” to “strongest” association with regional development activities such as bridge development, irrigation development, water supply development, housing development, education development, health development, community development, fisheries industry development, agriculture development and livelihood development. This study has implications for policy makers to a development tourism industry along Ampara Coastal Belt and Eastern part of the country.