As Tourism Surges in Sri Lanka, Locals Are Asking Who Truly Benefits

In December, Dutch traveler Tom Grond posted a short video on his Instagram account. “I found Bali 2.0 in Sri Lanka,” he wrote. In the reel, one could see a beachfront restaurant with a thatched roof, tables on the sand, local staff with broad smiles, coconuts on the countertops, a resident puppy and white tourists on beanbags. On the menu, coconuts were $2 and kombucha $3 — more than half the daily wage of a worker who handpicks the tea leaves that make this fermented beverage. On the sea, a couple of fishers sat on stilts with their fishing rods. The waves ebbed. The sun reddened.

The cafe in Grond’s video was in Ahangama, a small town 88 miles south of the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo. Traditionally a fishing town, it is now one of Sri Lanka’s busiest tourist spots, widely known for its coconut palm-lined shoreline, and is promoted as a surf destination and digital nomad hotspot during the peak season that runs from December to April. Cafes, bars, hotels and restaurants line the busy coastal highway and are slowly creeping into the town’s forested interiors. Their menus are almost always identical, with smoothie bowls, avocado on toast and vegan poke on offer…| read more on New Lines Magazine