Colombo launches 'Buddhist Path' to attract tourists and pilgrims

The initiative was promoted by the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Office to attract visitors from Buddhist communities. The President and Foreign Minister also announced a twinning programme between the country's temples and those in the South East Asian region.

Colombo (AsiaNews) - The Office for the Promotion of Tourism in Sri Lanka intends to introduce the "Buddhist Trail" initiative to enhance its cultural heritage by attracting visitors and pilgrims who belong to the religious community, initially, from South Asia and from South-East Asia, and then gradually including those from Europe, the United States and Australia.

At the same time, President Ranil Wickremesinghe and Foreign Minister Ali Sabr initiated a twinning program under which 100 Sri Lankan temples will have their counterparts within the countries forming the Association of Nations of Southeast Asia (ASEAN).

This is a diplomatic effort that aims to promote religious tourism and strengthen cultural ties between Asian nations: Singapore, Japan, Thailand and Cambodia will also be included in the second phase of the program. So far, Sri Lankan Buddhist monks have received invitations from Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea and Vietnam for similar initiatives.

According to Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau Chairman Chalaka Gajabahu, “As a Buddhist country, Sri Lanka has immense potential to establish its own unique tourism brand globally. The Buddhist Trail aims to emulate the success of similar initiatives such as the Buddhist Tourist Circuit of India and the Ramayana Trail. Sri Lanka can thus emerge as a major destination for Buddhist pilgrimages. Countries such as India, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, South Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia and China are among the main reference markets. Subsequently, the project will extend beyond Asia to include visitors' traditional countries of origin, namely Europe, the United States and Australia."

Other tourism sector officials explained to AsiaNews that "the decision to include tourists from Europe, the United States and Australia stems from the growing interest in Buddhist philosophy and spirituality among Western travellers."

“In the meantime - the authorities continued - in 2023 Sri Lanka achieved a noteworthy result in the overall arrival of tourists, exceeding the previous year's figure of 719,978 and reaching 1,487,303 visitors. As of December 2023, there has been a significant recovery in visitors with India, Russia, the UK, Germany and Australia standing out as key source markets. India has emerged as the largest source market with over 300,000 tourists.”

Finally, the Sri Lankan government is also working with Thailand to develop a Buddhist circuit and is collaborating with some ashrams in southern India.