PurposeThe present scenario of the Covid-19 pandemic, together with technological advancements, has provoked unprecedented turbulence in the education system, notably in universities, disrupting their conventional teaching and learning processes. Despite government support, teachers and students faced numerous challenges in the online teaching and learning process than expected. Extensive research has been undertaken to investigate the context of online education from the perspective of students, but less emphasis has been given to examining the views of teachers. Thus, the study aimed to explore attitudes of academics towards online teaching during the Covid-19 outbreak.Design/methodology/approachThe study was conducted in Sri Lanka, with the population consisting of academics representing all state universities. An email survey was conducted randomly, and 355 academics responded to a Google form, out of which 332 refined questionnaires were used for analysis. Multi-item reflective indicators were used to operationalize the research constructs on a 7-point Likert scale. The face, content, and construct validities were ensured appropriately. The reflective-reflective two-stage hierarchical approach with disjoint option was applied to analyze the data using the Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) model. After rigorous and careful examination of data, the descriptive statistics revealed that the university academics are pretty distressed with their Internet connections and facilities at home to conduct online lectures.FindingsActive student participation was just above the average, while teacher's attitudes towards online education, their willingness to continue it further seem quite unsatisfactory. Teacher readiness for online education appears to be acceptable only to a certain extent. The key findings of the study disclosed that the attitudes towards online teaching are determined by perceived usefulness, teacher readiness, perceived student participation whereas active student participation, a conducive teaching environment and institutional support have no significant impact on attitude towards online teaching. Further, the study contributed to the education literature analyzing online education in the Sri Lankan context.Originality/valueThis study sparked the debate and contributed to the literature exploring the concept from the side of teachers in which attitudes of teachers towards online teaching in Sri Lankan Contest.

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The hotel industry is one of the integral constituents in the flourishing tourism industry and is extremely competitive. In this competitive arena, service quality has become a crucial success factor in maintaining hotel standards. A strong, sustainable, outstanding service industry requires good service quality standards.  However, due to the intangible nature of service products, measuring service quality is substantially challengeable than measuring the quality of physical products. Hence, this study attempts to investigate the impact of food and beverage service quality on customer satisfaction in the star graded hotels. Dambulla is one of the major tourist destinations in Sri Lanka, has been identified as the study area. A total of 150 foreign departure tourists who have visited three and above star graded hotels in the respective area were selected through a convenient sampling technique. A widely accepted SERVQUAL model was utilized to ascertain the findings. Primary data were collected through a self-administered structured questionnaire. Descriptive, frequency, Pearson correlation, and multiple regression analysis were conducted to analyze data using SPSS. The results reveal that there is a positive significant impact of tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance of food and beverage service quality on customer satisfaction in the star graded hotels in Dambulla area. On the contrary, empathy shows that there is no impact on customer satisfaction. Moreover, tangibility is the most influential service quality attribute that affects customer satisfaction. Thus, the authorities must pay their attention towards improving the tangible evidence such as staff attires and appearance, aesthetic upkeep of interior and exterior, and provide reliable service for their guests with greater customer care.

Recognizing the significance of eco-tourism, Sri Lanka has been quick to jump on the environmental bandwagon and it had declared the year 2000 as "The year of Ecotourism", and the stage is being set for that purpose. . Kandy is a major tourism destination and it was declared a "World Heritage City". This study was to investigate the existing eeo-sites and activities centered around the Kandy region, potential eco-sites and their promotional activities, community benefits, programs launched by classified hotels and travel agents. Study also included views from 100 foreigners and 50 domestic travelers on the existing eco-tourism programs in the area .. A survey revealed that only five classified hotels were interested on eco-tourism activities. The popular ecosites identified by hotel managers and tour guides were; Knuckles range, Udawattakele sanctuary, Royal Botanical garden at Peradeniya, Mount Hunnasgiriya, Mahaweli river sides and Hantane mountain range. All the hotels and travel agents included in the study promote bird watching, sight seeing, walking and hiking!trekking.Activities like camping, cycling and motor boating are done on guest's request while some hotels and travel agents conduct butterfly watching, dragonfly watching and visiting remote villages. It was found that nearly 75% of the activities are organized by travel agents. Identified potential sites were Victoria and Randenigala forests, Dunumadalawa reserve, remote villages like Kalapuraya, Rock child estate, Ambuluwawa bio-diversity complex, Digana forest reserve and Kitulgala, Athough they are not fully explored for eco-tourism. Community benefits from the eco-tourism were found to be least or none except few job opportunities provided by few hotels. However, attention of key stakeholders for community benefits is of paramount importance. Analysis of foreign market profile revealed that their purpose of visit is sceneries, cultural and archaeological sites, ecovisits and other were 68%, 49%, 40%, and 18% respectively. Similarly proportion of the domestic market were 32~~, 36%, 4% and 28%. Both foreign and local visitors showed the same trend on the preferred activities; walking 24%, sight seeing 24%, bird watching 19%, cycling 8%, hiking! trekking 12%, canoeing! motor boating 7%, camping 5%.