Is Sri Lanka a Dark Tourism destination?

SriLanka is an identical destination for tourism among many travelers. Furthermore, SriLanka has earned its name as  best tea in the world, best spices in the world, and as an island of Gems, also, SriLanka is blessed with its natural beauty, wildlife, historical edifice, monuments, heritage and culture diversity. All make SriLanka as a paradise island for tourism. 

Despite of all this and the beauty, SriLanka faced number natural calamities such as tsunami, landslides, etc. and destroy made by humans such as civil war and Easter attack 2019. Such disasters could paralyzed SriLankan Economy and tourism industry repeatedly in several occasions.

By looking at the world history, SriLanka is not the only victim of devastation such as Civil war, natural disaster or terrorist attacks. Even though, such incident could make SriLankan economy and tourism industry to hit the rock bottom, these historical tragedies invented dark tourism attractions which can use as tourism income earning points. Likewise, India promoted dark tourism income from the famous 2008 Mumbai attack and USA promotes historical 9/11 attack site visit tours. 

Civil war zone tours

After SriLankan Army defeated LTTE in 2009, after more than thirty years of civil war, northern part of the country was opened for public to come and experience the war sites of Jaffna, Kilinochchi, Mullaitivu, Pudukuduirippu and Elephant Pass where the scares of war are still remaining. Even after 10 years today, local and foreign travelers interest to visit war sites to experience the dark days of SriLankan civil war.

      Image: Rusty Wreck

 Image: Bunkers  

Image: War Museum 

Aranthalawa Massacre Site

Aranathalawa massacre is also an one of examples of dreadful incidents during the civil war time and which was happened in a village closer to Ampara. LTTE brutally killed 33 Buddhists monks and massacred 4 civilians inside of a bus which was going a pilgrim from Ampara to Kelaniya temple. Memory museum has been created with the same bus preserved and massacre was portrayed through scalpers today.

     Image: Aranthalawa Massacre Bus

Image: Massacre in scalpers  

Tsunami Memorial museums                     

In year 2004 on 26 Dec, SriLanka was a victim of most dreadful Tsunami of Indian ocean. Which caused a massive distraction by wiping away shores and some coastal cities. More than 35000 people lost their lives including foreign travelers more than 1000 people became homeless. This unfortunate incident could bring SriLankan tourism industry and economy down drastically. In a memory of Tsunami victims, Tsunami photo memorial museums were opened in Hikkaduwa and Thelwatta which are attracted by local and foreign travelers.

                                   Image: General Tsunami Photo Museum -  Thelwatta

Image: Community Tsunami Education Center and Tsnami Museum -  Hikkaduwa

                                        Image: Tsunami Honganji Viharaya -  Hikkaduwa

2019 Ester Sunday attack 

Multiple suicide bomb blast attempted at three Catholic Churches and three major tourist hotels in Colombo area by targeting tourists and Christian Community who were at Ester day Mass on 21^st April 2019. This incident could kill nearly 300 civilians and could damage SriLankan reputation as tourism destination.

                                         Image: St. Anthony's Shrine, Kochchikade 

                                                  Image: St. Sebastian's Church, Katuwapitiya

                                                 Image: Zion Church Batticaloa SriLanka

Dark tourism traveler is always seeking and curios to gather knowledge about historical tragedies and has an interest to travel to tragic places to pay respect to those who lost their lives. Therefore, it would be an ideal way to add these places to their tour itineraries and on the other hand, this could be an income for Sri Lankan Tourism.

Shaniya Ranaweera 

BA (Hon) Travel and Tourism management – London Metropolitan University