Analyzing the Determinants of Tourists’ Buying Behaviour in Sri Lanka: With Special Reference to Tourism Destinations in Down South of Sri Lanka

Abstract

Aims: This study models tourists’ buying behavior in Sri Lanka analyzing key determinants of tourists’ buying behavior along with demographic characteristics of the tourists. The study focuses on how Marketing Mix Factors, Situational Factors and Personal Factors and other demographic factors affect tourist buying behavior in three tourist destinations in Down-South of Sri Lanka.
 Methodology: Data were collected from 500 tourists who visited three main tourist destinations such as Hikkaduwa, Unawatuna and Mirissa located in Down-South of Sri Lanka. Both descriptive and econometric analyses were employed to accomplish the objectives of the study.
 Results: The results of the descriptive analysis suggest that most of the tourists were from countries such as Russia, Germany and United Kingdom and their main purpose of the visits were recreation and leisure followed by education and health. Moreover, the respondents stayed 20 days on average in Down-South. However, it was observed that tourists’ spending per day is significantly low and more than 69% of the tourists spent less than 100$ per day. The econometric findings emphasize that all three key determinants of consumer buying behaviour– marketing mix factors, situational factors and personal factors positively affect the tourists’ buying behavior. Apart from that, personal factors have been recognized as the most influential factor of tourists’ buying behavior in the context of Sri Lanka. Furthermore, demographic characteristics of tourists such as gender, marital status, education level and employment status also affect tourist buying behavior.
 Conclusion: Hence, appropriate policies are required to enhance the quality of all indicators of the marketing mix, situational factors and personal factors in order to increase tourists’ buying behavior. Similarly, the current study also recommends the implementation of efficient policies to ensure security, cultural harmony and political stability in order to uplift tourists’ buying behavior pattern.