Abstract:
Tourism is one of the important industries that help the development of local areas. Tourism results
in more benefits to the local communities including improvements in their livelihood. However,
active participation of local communities and proper coordination among all stakeholders are more
important in gaining benefits from tourism activities, otherwise, it can be disturbed the activities of
the local communities by tourism development. This research mainly aimed at identifying expected
benefits of tourism, to identify the levels of impact and the problems and issues of local tourism
development in the Haputale area. The study utilized a qualitative research approach with 30 samples
in the community members in Haputale division. The researcher adopts the focus groups and
structured interviews to gather primary data. Collected data were transcribed and analyzed manually
using thematic analysis. According to the findings of the study, there were more economic benefits
than the other social and cultural benefits and environmental benefits from tourism. The study found
that tourism provides many employment opportunities for the residents in the area. Nevertheless,
there were some problems and issues faced by the community and expectations such as the need for
awareness programs, development of infrastructure facilities, agricultural facilities and economic
resources and deforestation issues while developing rural tourism areas. Finally, there are some
recommendations such as Regional development planning, Maximize the awareness about the
importance of education, Provide public transport facilities where necessary to enhance accessibility,
Government involvement of making policy framework to improve community participation in
tourism benefit gaining in Sri Lanka.
Keywords: Rural tourism; Tourism benefits; Local community; Problems and issue
