STUDIA UBB NEGOTIA, LXVIII, 4, 2023, pp. 7-31 (RECOMMENDED CITATION) DOI:10.24193/subbnegotia.2023.4.01 RESIDENT PERCEPTION OF TOURISM IMPACT IN AN ENVIRONMENTALLY SENSITIVE AREA: THE CASE OF A WETLAND IN SRI LANKA Article history: Received: July 10, 2023; Reviewed: October 4, 2023; Accepted: October 30, 2023; Available online: December 20, 2023; Available print: December 30, 2023. ©2023 Studia UBB Negotia. Published by Babeş-Bolyai University. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License István EGRESI 1 , Supun Lahiru PRAKASH 2 , Amila WITHANAGE 3 , Aruna WEERASINGHA 4 ABSTRACT. The main objective of this study was to assess the tourism development perception of residents living in one of Sri Lanka’s most interesting wetland areas, the Muthurajavela Wetland and Negombo Lagoon. Knowledge of resident perception is essential if tourism is to develop in a sustainable manner. We found that, in general, local people tend to recognize both the benefits and the costs of tourism development in their community, but their overall assessment of tourism impact is clearly positive. Another important finding of this study is that, while the entire population is supportive of tourism, there are differences in the level of support between groups of residents based on community attachment, income and place of residence. The results of this study are encouraging for future wetland tourism development because of the positive attitudes expressed by the local population. Previous studies 1 Assistant Prof. PhD., Center for Research on Settlements and Urbanism, Department of Human Geography and Tourism, Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Email: istvan.egresi@ubbcluj.ro 2 Ph.D. Student, Guangxi Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Conservation, College of Forestry, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, China; Muthurajawela and Negombo Lagoon Development Foundation, Pamunugama 11370, Sri Lanka. Email: prakashtgsl@gmail.com 3 Member, Muthurajawela and Negombo Lagoon Development Foundation, Pamunugama 11370, Sri Lanka. Email: withanage.amila@gmail.com 4 Member, Muthurajawela and Negombo Lagoon Development Foundation, Pamunugama 11370, Sri Lanka. Email: arunaweerasingha@yahoo.com