Due to being an island in the Indian Ocean, the climate is generally warm with a good balance of sun and rain. The diversity of the place is not only reflected in nature but also in culture and experiences for the many visiting tourists every year.
Sri Lanka has experienced a growing tourism industry ever since gaining independence from the British in 1947. Over the years, many beautiful resorts, hotels, and spas have opened up in the region enticing tourists with the promises of a beautiful stay in an island paradise. Modern-day Sri Lanka has evolved into a great tourist destination and an amazing place to spend your next holiday in.
In this article, we take a look at reasons to visit the place that Marco Polo once claimed to be “the best island of its size”.
The Wildlife and Plants of Sri Lanka
One of the key reasons to visit Sri Lanka is to explore wildlife and the environment of the island nation, which is home to many national parks that have become one of the primary attractions for the tourism industry.
Rated among the 34 biodiversity hotspots in the world, Sri Lanka is home to a wide variety of flora and fauna with a lot of them being indigenous to the island nation. More than eight thousand and five hundred square meters of the island has been designated as Wildlife Protection Areas.
Sri Lanka has fourteen national parks and a lot of animals like elephant, leopard, sloth bear, spotted deer can be found in them. The island nation is also considered as an ornithologist’s dream with over two hundred and thirty-three resident species.
The need to conserve the environment is deeply ingrained in the Sri Lankan culture, with the first wildlife sanctuary established in 3rd century BC by the then Buddhist monarch.
The Beaches of Sri Lanka
With nearly 1600 km of coastline, Sri Lanka offers a lot of tropical beaches which are popular both among the locals and tourists both. A large part of the coastline in Sri Lanka is filled with a lot of diverse coastal features such as bays, lagoons, sandbanks, and rocky headlands.
There are a lot of marine recreational activities for tourists to partake in such as swimming, surfing, boating, underwater photography, deep-sea fishing etc in the beaches and the related resort areas.
Some of the famous beaches to visit in Sri Lanka are the beaches at Tangalle, Beruwala, Mirissa, Bentota, Pasikudah, and Negombo.
The Cultural Heritage of Sri Lanka
A large part of tourism in Sri Lanka is heritage tourism which involves visiting historical sites. The island nation is very rich in pre-history, proto-history, and historic monuments. The island nation is known for its ancient culture and culture. A significant impact of Buddhism can be found in the cultural heritage of Sri Lanka.
UNESCO has declared eight World Heritage Sites on the island, two of them being ecological sites and the other six are archaeological sites. Famous sites include the Temple of the Tooth, Galle and the Central Highlands of Sri Lanka.
The most famous historical site in Sri Lanka is the Kingdom of Anuradhapura. It is considered one of the most sacred cities of world Buddhists and one of the oldest inhabited cities in the world. It was the capital of Sri Lanka from the fourth century BC up to the turn of the eleventh century. The site was abandoned due to repeated invasions and was eventually forgotten until being discovered again in the 19th century.
The Pilgrimage in Sri Lanka
The island nation of Sri Lanka is well known for its rich Buddhist culture but also for other religions. It has a lot of places with a religious and historical significance which attract tourists from all over the world.
Sites like the Temple of the Tooth, Sri Pada, Anuradhapura are some of the religious sites which attract a large number of tourists every year for their religious significance.
The local foot pilgrimage is known as Pada Yatra and is one of Sri Lanka’s oldest traditions which has been practiced for centuries. Villages on-route this pilgrimage participate by providing refreshments, meals, hospitality, and accommodation to the pilgrims who are regarded as God's messengers. The origins of the pilgrimage started with a myth where the God Kataragama himself landed on the shores of the island nation and walked to Kataragama.
The Culture of Sri Lanka
Another reason to visit Sri Lanka is to experience a unique and diverse culture present on the island nation. Cultural tourism in Sri Lanka includes tourism in urban areas, particularly historic or large cities and their cultural facilities like theatres and museums.
There are four national museums and twenty-six archaeological museums in the nation, maintained by the Department of National Museums and the Department of Archaeology.
Sri Lanka’s multi-cultural heritage means that a lot of diverse festivals is celebrated by various communities in the island nation. In addition, the food of Sri Lanka is also amazing to explore as it is influenced by many historical, cultural and other factors.