Increasing the Accommodation Capacity towards Sustainable Tourism in Northern Province of Sri Lanka

Abstract

Tourism sector is the third largest foreign exchange earner in Sri Lanka. Cooper, Fletcher, Fyall, Gilbert & Wanhill (2008) stated the necessity of accommodation as accommodation provides the facilities for the tourists to engage in any sort of activities at a destination, therefore, travelling will be incomplete in absence of accommodation. Accommodation is fundamentally required for tourism supply. The basic infrastructure facilities are necessarily required to attract tourists to tourist places. In addition, the characteristics of tourist destinations determine the success of the tourist destinations and it is also vital satisfy the requirements of international tourists. This research employed regression analysis, correlation and normality test to evaluate the impact of accommodation capacity on tourist arrival in the Northern province of Sri Lanka. Only 6 annual observations from 2013 to 2018 were incorporated in this study as no data available for Northern region due to three decades of civil war. The findings indicated that there is very strong and positive correlation between accommodation capacity and tourist arrival. The regression analysis showed that nearly 94 per cent of the variation in the tourist arrival (Foreign Guest Nights in Graded Accommodation) is explained by the independent variables. This study recommend the Sri Lankan government and relevant authorities to establish star hotels and standardize their service to cater more international visitors in Northern province, Sri Lanka so that the economic growth of the Northern province will be uplifted through sustainable tourism.

Keywords: Accommodation Capacity, Northern Province, Rooms, Occupancy Rate