Financial Discipline of the Tourist- Linked Small-Scale Businessmen in Sri Lanka. (With Special Reference to North-Central Province)

Background: In invigorating the tourism industry in Sri Lanka, one of the best strategies is pushing existing tourism-linked small-scale businessmen due to the hardship of capitalization. Here, as the small-scale businessmen, only those who are occupied in selling handicrafts and demonstrating a different wide variety of scenic animals were emphasized. So, it is worthwhile to grasp the nature of the financial discipline of these businessmen and propel them towards fecundity. The key purpose was to identify the perception of money management of tourism-related small-scale businessmen in Sri Lanka and their intention to improve it further. Based on the outcomes of the preliminary survey, initially, this work was planned. The research design was exploratory cum descriptive. A mixed approach was applied, and deductive reasoning was helpful for postulation. Administering questionnaires with the aid of electronic means and enquiring focus groups and opinion leaders via telephone discussions when possible primary data were collected and for secondary data, documentary sources were associated. Using the scattered sampling method, out of around 564 businessmen 150 businessmen were selected from popular tourist sites in North Central Province. For analysis, independent sample t-test and one-way ANOVA were applied. Cronbach’s alpha for each item viz financial knowledge, attitudes, and behavior was 0.884, 0.892, and 0.794 respectively. The existing level of financial discipline of respective businessmen is not at a fully appreciable level due to adverse outcomes of demographic factors like poor education and lack of business experience. The new data is that majority of tourist-linked small-scale businessmen in Sri Lanka are financially illiterate, and their thrift is not at a satisfactory level. The study was conducted subject to fewer limitations and eventually, some policy implications have been suggested.