Abstract:
Tourism and travel are some of the most important economic activities around the
globe. Entrepreneurship is seen as an important factor in the development of
tourism, and it is a major contributor to economic development in both
developing and developed countries. Further, Entrepreneurship is considered as
the key to the growing problem of graduate unemployment. Sri Lanka has a very
low presentation of entrepreneurs in the market numbering less than 1.5% of the
population. Compared to other countries, the entrepreneurs’ rate in Sri Lanka is
low. Based on this background, this study aimed to examine the factors that
affect tourism and hospitality undergraduates’ entrepreneurial intention. The
conceptual framework of the study was developed based on the Theory of
planned behaviour. Accordingly, Personal Attitude, Subjective Norm, and
Perceived behavioural control were considered as the independent variables and
entrepreneurial intention was considered as the dependent variable. The
population of this study consist of all the tourism and hospitality undergraduates
of state universities in Sri Lanka. The sample of this study comprises 117 tourism
and hospitability undergraduates of four state universities, which offer tourism
and hospitality management degree programs. The primary data of the study
were collected utilizing a structured questionnaire and the data were analyzed
using descriptive and inferential statistics such as correlation and regression
analysis. The results of the descriptive analysis indicate that the tourism and
hospitality undergraduates have strong entrepreneurial intentions as the mean
value of entrepreneurial intentions is 4.0. Further, the results of the correlation
analysis indicate that perceived behavioural control, personal attitude, and
subjective norm have a positive significant relationship with tourism and
hospitality undergraduates’ entrepreneurial intention. The results of the
regression analysis indicate that the perceived behavioural control, personal
attitude, and subjective norm significantly affect the undergraduates’
entrepreneurial intention. Further, the result indicates that personal attitude is the
most influential factor on undergraduate’ entrepreneurial intention. Based on the
results, it is recommended for the universities to organize programs to inculcate
the positive attitudesof undergraduates towards entrepreneurship. Also, make the
undergraduates aware of the entrepreneur opportunities in the tourism industry.
This study provides implications for comprehending the determinants of tourism
and hospitality undergraduate students’ entrepreneurial intention.
