Hill Station Tourism, Ramayana Trail and Challenges for Upland Urbanization in Central Sri Lanka

Abstract

Using a literature review, tourist arrival data, interviews with tourists and tour guides, this article examines the role of hill stations established under the British colonial regime, and the subsequent development of the Ramayana Trail promoting Indian tourism to Sri Lanka and domestic tourism within Sri Lanka. Nuwara Eliya developed as a colonial hill station with the gradual installation of required infrastructure facilities, scenic mountainous landscape and desirable weather conditions conducive to holiday making among the colonial elites. While colonial rule formally ended in 1948, the plantation economy and the hill station continued shaping postcolonial developments in Sri Lanka. Building on the Ramayana mythology framed in ancient India and the urban infrastructure established in the colonial hill station, the Ramayana Trail developed in the postcolonial era, constituting a new form of pilgrimage plus tourism targeting designated Ramayana sites in Sri Lanka. This article examines the resulting expansion of tourism and related infrastructural development encompassing mountain landscape, new challenges encountered by the postcolonial state and the tourist industry in catering to the demands from the Ramayana pilgrims, the service providers and the local communities and possible ways of addressing these challenges evolved from the colonial era.