Does Destination Loyalty Impact Eco-Tourism? Evidence from International Millennial Tourists in Sri Lanka.

Abstract

his research note considers ways in which we may better understand how loyal international millennials are to the ecotourism destinations in Sri Lanka. Millennial is referred to individuals who reached adulthood around the turn of the 21st century, and millennial tourists could be identified to pay more for sustainability compared to other generations. According to F. Buffa (2015) little research has been done to date on millennials and tourism. Objectives of this study are to investigate the profile of the international millennial tourist towards eco-tourism, to determine the effect of eco-tourism perception and destination loyalty on eco-tourism, and to determine the most influential dimension of eco-tourism perception on destination loyalty towards eco-tourism in Sri Lanka. Judgemental sampling technique was used for the study to select the sample. Data was collated from 150 international millennial tourists at Ella and Horton Plains through a structured questionnaire. Descriptive analysis and multiple regression analysis were used for the study. According to the findings, most of the millennial tourists do not favour Sri Lanka as the preferred eco-tourism destination, and they highlighted that resources of the eco-tourism destination is one of the most influential factors, which tends to attract tourists to the destination. Under the recommendations, maintenance of a proper waste disposal system, use of effective promotional methods, convergence of facilities, implementation of the rules and regulations of the country are proposed. Further, sustainable tourism practices need to be adopted by the eco tourism destinations to enhance the destination loyalty towards Sri Lanka.