Analysis of tourism and fashion retailing : a Sri Lankan perspective

Abstract

Sri Lankan tourism industry has been experiencing a rapid growth both in terms of tourist arrivals and in foreign exchange revenues. The Government of Sri Lanka has identified tourism as a major growth area in post-conflict development, aiming to attract 2.5 million tourists by 2016. Furthermore fashion retail sector today too has shown significant market growth. Local retailers are expanding their scale and scope whilst global retailers continued to enter. In this context, the purpose of this study was to investigate, to what extend Sri Lankan fashion retail sector has grasped tourism market opportunities. Research has adopted a quantitative research methodology. Judgmental sampling of the non probability sampling criteria was chosen. The questionnaire survey was built according to the marketing mix factors to assess whether Sri Lankan fashion retail sector offers a products that leads customer satisfaction, which was priced accurately, sell using appropriate distribution methods using suitable promotional tactics to seize tourism market potentials. Results revealed that retailing and marketing approaches in terms of product, price, place and promotion are not focused exclusively to meet the demands of tourist market segment. Therefore, retailers should implement proper market growth strategies to fully gain advantages of this so far less explored market opportunity.