Abstract:
Community Based Tourism (CBT) has become popular as a tool for eradicating poverty and ensuring sustainable tourism. Therefore, several CBT projects were initiated to empower the communities in rural tourist destinations to start tourism businesses. The aim of this study is to examine the assistance provided by such CBT projects, and to evaluate the effectiveness of the projects in terms of achieving project goals and community goals. Ruhunu Tourism Bureau (RTB), one of the CBT empowerment projects that operate in the Southern Province of Sri Lanka, was selected for this study. Kanneliya and Viharahena tourism villages were selected as research sites. Mixed method approach was applied for this study. By using random sampling technique, 100 participants from each village were included in the sample. Additionally, 10 villagers from both villages, and 5 officers from this project were selected to get the real perception on the effectiveness of the project. Structured questionnaires and interviews were used for primary data collection. Community empowerment efforts were taken as the independent variable, and three dimensions, namely, financial assistance, capacity development and network building, were used to measure the degree of assistance. Project effectiveness was the dependent variable of this study, and two sub dimensions, namely, economic development and socio-cultural development, were used to measure the project effectiveness. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and regression analysis. Findings revealed that among the community empowerment efforts, financial assistance has had a significant impact on achieving project effectiveness. However, community expects further assistance to improve bio diversity, infrastructure, skill development, and market connections to enhance tourism and socio-economic development in the area.
