[01] W. K. Athula Gnanapala, Dept. of Tourism Management, Faculty of Management Studies, Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka, Belihuloya, Sri Lanka.

Tourism has become an important global economic and leisure activity due to its growing acceptance and benefits. Therefore, countries engage in numerous marketing and promotional activities to attract more tourists and improve their satisfaction. If a destination can identify and satisfy the needs and wants of tourists, these tourists will probably make repeat visits and spread positive word of mouth publicity. Researchers have discussed the close relationships among the psychological variables, such as motivation, attitude, perception, and satisfaction. Therefore, it is worthwhile to use these variables to study about the tourists’ behavior. The main objective of this paper is to identify the relationship between the tourists’ perception and satisfaction and discuss its influence on destination management. The study adopts questionnaire survey by personal interviews with 204 tourists through convenience sampling. Correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis are employed to find the association between the variables. The result of the proposed model confirms that there is a positive correlation and linear relationship between the dependent (tourists’ satisfaction) and independent variables (destination related factors that affect for the perception of the tourists). The results show that there is a positive correlation and linear relationship between the tourists' perception and the satisfaction the proposed model exists and is named as DESPER (Destination Perception). The study concluded that the tourists who visit Sri Lanka are satisfied and willing to behave positively, i.e. revisit and recommend. However, the tourists are dissatisfied with several destination related factors, therefore, the relevant and responsible authorities should take necessary actions to improve those factors.

Destination Selection, Tourists Perception, Tourists Satisfaction, Revisit, Destination Management

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