IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/scm/rdtusv/v24y2017i24p8.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Whale watching Tourism in Sri Lanka: Visitor Satisfaction and Behavioural Characteristics

Author

Listed:
  • Jeremy Buultjens

    (Southern Cross University)

  • Iraj Ratnayake

    (Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka)

  • Athula Gnanapala

    (Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka)

  • Alexandru Mircea Nedelea

    (Stefan cel Mare University of Suceava)

Abstract

The commercial whale watching industry in Sri Lanka, like the tourism industry generally, is experiencing rapid growth in visitor numbers. The challenge for the government is to ensure the sector is managed sustainably which, in-part, requires an understanding of tour participants, their needs and experiences. In order to address this need, a study using the perceived-performance model was undertaken in Mirissa and Galle to examine the profile of whale watching tourists, their tour experiences and spending patterns. In late-2012 and early-2013 a questionnaire constructed in English and Sinhala and containing 28 questions was administered to participants after their tour in both Mirissa and Galle. Study participants indicated that they were overwhelmingly satisfied with all aspects of their tour. Additional the findings indicated that undertaking a whale watching tour was an important influence on their decision to visit Mirissa/Galle and contributed significantly to their enjoyment of their visit to the towns. The results also indicated the economic importance of whale watching to Mirissa and Galle.

Suggested Citation

  • Jeremy Buultjens & Iraj Ratnayake & Athula Gnanapala & Alexandru Mircea Nedelea, 2017. "Whale watching Tourism in Sri Lanka: Visitor Satisfaction and Behavioural Characteristics," Revista de turism - studii si cercetari in turism / Journal of tourism - studies and research in tourism, "Stefan cel Mare" University of Suceava, Romania, Faculty of Economics and Public Administration - Economy, Business Administration and Tourism Department., vol. 24(24), pages 1-8, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:scm:rdtusv:v:24:y:2017:i:24:p:8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://revistadeturism.ro/rdt/article/view/386
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Chen, Chung-Ling, 2011. "From catching to watching: Moving towards quality assurance of whale/dolphin watching tourism in Taiwan," Marine Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 10-17, January.
    2. Cisneros-Montemayor, A.M. & Sumaila, U.R. & Kaschner, K. & Pauly, D., 2010. "The global potential for whale watching," Marine Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(6), pages 1273-1278, November.
    3. Joachim H. Spangenberg, 2004. "Reconciling sustainability and growth: criteria, indicators, policies," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 12(2), pages 74-86.
    4. Chen, Ching-Fu & Chen, Fu-Shian, 2010. "Experience quality, perceived value, satisfaction and behavioral intentions for heritage tourists," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 29-35.
    5. Tisdell, Clement A. & Wilson, Clevo, 2004. "Economics, Wildlife Tourism and Conservation: Three Case Studies," Economics, Ecology and Environment Working Papers 51416, University of Queensland, School of Economics.
    6. Stephen Burgess & Carmine Sellitto & Carmen Cox & Jeremy Buultjens, 2011. "Trust perceptions of online travel information by different content creators: Some social and legal implications," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 13(2), pages 221-235, April.
    7. Alhilal FURQAN & Ahmad Puad MAT SOM & Rosazman HUSSIN, 2010. "pROMOTING GREEN TOURISM FOR FUTURE SUSTAINABILITY," Theoretical and Empirical Researches in Urban Management, Research Centre in Public Administration and Public Services, Bucharest, Romania, vol. 5(8(17)), pages 64-74, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mustika, Putu Liza Kusuma & Birtles, Alastair & Welters, Riccardo & Marsh, Helene, 2012. "The economic influence of community-based dolphin watching on a local economy in a developing country: Implications for conservation," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 11-20.
    2. Mallard, Graham, 2019. "Regulating whale watching: A common agency analysis," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 191-199.
    3. Hui-Ju Wang, 2022. "Antecedents of behavioral intentions for green city tourists," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(1), pages 377-398, January.
    4. Lawrence Bunnell & Kweku-Muata Osei-Bryson & Victoria Y. Yoon, 0. "RecSys Issues Ontology: A Knowledge Classification of Issues for Recommender Systems Researchers," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 0, pages 1-42.
    5. Heesup Han & Myong Jae Lee & Wansoo Kim, 2018. "Antecedents of Green Loyalty in the Cruise Industry: Sustainable Development and Environmental Management," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(3), pages 323-335, March.
    6. Yuhan Ge & Qing Yuan & Yaxi Wang & Keunsoo Park, 2021. "The Structural Relationship among Perceived Service Quality, Perceived Value, and Customer Satisfaction-Focused on Starbucks Reserve Coffee Shops in Shanghai, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-19, August.
    7. Zhang Juan, 2020. "Diversification of Factors Influencing Qualitative Evaluation of a Historical and Cultural Destination," Polish Journal of Sport and Tourism, Sciendo, vol. 27(1), pages 33-39, March.
    8. Kuo, Hsiao-I. & Chen, Chi-Chung & McAleer, Michael, 2012. "Estimating the impact of whaling on global whale-watching," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 33(6), pages 1321-1328.
    9. Bart Neuts & João Romão & Eveline van Leeuwen & Peter Nijkamp, 2013. "Describing the Relationships between Tourist Satisfaction and Destination Loyalty in a Segmented and Digitalized Market," Tourism Economics, , vol. 19(5), pages 987-1004, October.
    10. Pipatpong Fakfare & Walanchalee Wattanacharoensil, 2023. "Low‐carbon tourism for island destinations: A crucial alternative for sustainable development," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(1), pages 180-197, February.
    11. Daniel Martínez-Cevallos & Alejandra Proaño-Grijalva & Mario Alguacil & Daniel Duclos-Bastías & David Parra-Camacho, 2020. "Segmentation of Participants in a Sports Event Using Cluster Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(14), pages 1-15, July.
    12. Söderlund, Magnus & Sagfossen, Sofie, 2017. "The consumer experience: The impact of supplier effort and consumer effort on customer satisfaction," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 219-229.
    13. Kai Klinker & Manuel Wiesche & Helmut Krcmar, 2020. "Digital Transformation in Health Care: Augmented Reality for Hands-Free Service Innovation," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 22(6), pages 1419-1431, December.
    14. Carmen Berne-Manero & Maria Gómez-Campillo & Mercedes Marzo-Navarro & Marta Pedraja-Iglesias, 2018. "Reviewing the Online Tourism Value Chain," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 8(3), pages 1-18, August.
    15. Seung-Hun Shin & Sung-Byung Yang & Kichan Nam & Chulmo Koo, 2017. "Conceptual foundations of a landmark personality scale based on a destination personality scale: Text mining of online reviews," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 743-752, August.
    16. Chun-Mei Chen & Hsian-Ming Liu, 2017. "Exploring the Impact of Airlines Service Quality on Customer Loyalty: Evidence from Taiwan," International Journal of Business and Management, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 12(5), pages 1-36, April.
    17. Kosiba, John Paul & Acheampong, Audrey & Adeola, Ogechi & Hinson, Robert E., 2020. "The moderating role of demographic variables on customer expectations in airport retail patronage intentions of travellers," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    18. Nahla Ben Yekhlef Boukadida & Salah Boumaiza, 2015. "An exploratory study of Tourist-patient satisfaction and behavioral intentions in medical tourism: Post-hoc segmentation," Post-Print halshs-01253385, HAL.
    19. Lujun Su & Yinghua Huang, 2018. "How does Perceived Destination Social Responsibility Impact Revisit Intentions: The Mediating Roles of Destination Preference and Relationship Quality," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-22, December.
    20. Jun Hwan Kim & Hyun Cheol Lee, 2019. "Understanding the Repurchase Intention of Premium Economy Passengers Using an Extended Theory of Planned Behavior," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-19, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:scm:rdtusv:v:24:y:2017:i:24:p:8. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Iulian Condratov (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/feusvro.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.