Backpacker tourism and potential towards transformation

Young travellers usually like to eat tasty and healthy food in the modest of eateries in the island and thereby interact with the local communities  

Who we become as adults is shaped by our experiences in our youth. Therefore it is very important for young people from around the world to have their travel experience without tailor-made segregation being orchestrated unknown to them by Sri Lankan international hostel operators. Such an apartheid-like tourism policy could subtly alter their own subconscious contributing lethally to an already over-racial world 

By Surya Vishwa 

Backpacker tourism is popular in Sri Lanka, where generally young people globally, especially from Europe arrive seeking the best adventure type of experiential trip. 

They are young – often between ages of 18 and 35 and many solo female travellers choose Sri Lanka as an epic destination.

Backpackers often stay in hostels which are spread out across this country. Some of these hostels charge as low as Rs. 1,500 a night.

This means that a sum like $ 500 which is the per night price of high-end luxury tourism in Sri Lanka will feed and house for about two weeks, a poor or broke young backpacker. Young travellers usually like to eat tasty and healthy food in the modest of eateries in the island and thereby interact with the local communities.

It would not be incorrect to state that the more young travellers this nation gets, the more money is transferred directly to communities at the most rural grass root level communities. 

While older tourists – or rich Sri Lankans who can spend $ 500 a night for accommodation but have neither the vigour of youth or the enthusiasm, would not consider venturing into far flung remote areas that require physical energy like walking for miles because there is no bus facility. Young idealists treasure these moments. 

Who we become as adults is shaped by our experiences in our youth. Therefore it is very important for young people from around the world to have their travel experience without tailor-made segregation being orchestrated unknown to them by Sri Lankan international hostel operators. Such an apartheid-like tourism policy could subtly alter their own subconscious contributing lethally to an already over-racial world. 

Sri Lankans barring other Sri Lankans

This article is based on a research done from October 2024 to June 2025 concerning international hostels in Sri Lanka. We visited about 10 hostels around the country. What was discovered was stringent racism practiced as the norm by most (not all) Sri Lankan hostel operators. Some showed no outward sign of discrimination but chose a pricing option through the booking.com facility that enables the host to specify per night rate according to country currency, etc. So what one Sri Lankan in Nuwara Eliya who had just rented a massive property for tourism has done is – raised the Sri Lankan hostel type premises rate to about say Rs. 50,000 a night while the rate for a say, German/American/any white skin would be 25 Euro at the very maximum. Thereby he has cunningly prevented Sri Lankans from staying at his tourism establishment because no Sri Lankan in their right mind is going to opt for such a rate unless it is super luxury. The methods used by Sri Lankans to bar other Sri Lankans from tourism spots are ingenious.

For example a popular hostel in Nuwara Eliya which also has a branch in Trincomalee had man eating dogs – about five of them, grow up from infant puppyhood with only humans who had white skin. The end result was when a Sri Lankan – or brown skinned youth from the South Asian region walked in alongside a white skin youth the dogs would behave in two ways. They will wag their tails at the white backpacker and growl menacingly at the brown one, making it impossible for the Sri Lankan/s to enter the hostel unless he or she wished to offer themselves as sacrificial dog-buffet. When I ventured into this hostel premises I was almost killed because the owner got late to greet and rescue his ‘brown skinned’ – ‘backpacker.’ When he finally surfaced he seemed reluctant to house me, informing me that this place was ‘not suitable’ for locals! 

Another hostel in the beach area in the South recruited retired persons who had served in the Sri Lankan Tri Forces. The primary task of these recruits was to keep local travellers strictly off the precincts. One former military person recruited for the task told me as follows: “I have served here only a week and I have been told never to allow any local man or woman under any circumstance whatsoever. He stressed this in Sinhala as instructed to him and it was an explicit instruction. NEVER EVER, EVER, EVER open the gate to a local – whether man or woman. This is what made him be extremely rude to this writer when I sauntered in. 

I had arrived with a booking made by contacting the owner directly. The proprietor of the hostel, a local – who does not live at the premises checked my credentials and gave me a generous discount being exceedingly welcoming on the phone and WhatsApp. No racial bias was evident. But instead of arriving later I got there earlier. The gate was not opened for me. Our military recruit took a good 25 minutes checking with the owner, as I stood on the road. Inside I heard happy talk by an entirety of foreign accents. 

The boss had apparently told the military recruit that there is a Sri Lankan whose arrival he had cleared but that she would be arriving only by 9 p.m. I got there by 5 p.m. Tired out standing with my knapsack outside the gate I telephoned the owner who apologised for keeping me waiting on the highroads. Later in the evening, after he had arrived from his Colombo suburb home, he explained that he does not want any Sri Lankans to even know of the hostel location. He justified this stance by stating that his hostel guests have been faced with many problems by local men. Fatigued to my bones, I did not bother to respond that my gender was not male and that despite this fact I was treated like a common criminal.

A wonder of global interaction

Not all hostels operate in this manner. The international hostel located in Thimbirigasyaya on Park Road managed by ADIC – the Alcohol and Drug Information Centre in Sri Lanka as a way of fund raising for their anti-tobacco projects in Sri Lanka is a wonder of global interaction. Every nationality including Sri Lankans are treated with utmost (equal) respect by the management. The atmosphere is charged with joy and comradery. The only problem is that this place is permanently full up. This cannot be said for the hotels operating on racial bias. 

Another hostel close by, down Park Road, is also reportedly completely non-racist, with equal treatment for humans irrespective of skin colour. 

Although this writer did not visit the Drop Inn international hostel located a short distance away from the ADIC managed hostel, I was assured by a Sri Lankan who had stayed there, that although very popular and thereby occupied more by Western travellers, that it was colour blind in its hosting policy. 

Another boutique hostel in Fort I nearly visited seemed to have a very pleasant approach to all humans. When I contacted them on phone to make a tentative booking there were no questions regarding my surname which some hostels insist on knowing so as to ascertain nationality without being outrightly blunt. 

Now let us enter the discussion that merits the above findings. Every issue or concern always has two sides to a story. The first side of the story we read about above. Now let us explore the second. 

Why the bias

Why are some Sri Lankan based, Sri Lankan run, international hostels biased against Sri Lankans?

The list given out is:

1. (Most) Sri Lankans use wash rooms irresponsibly and mess up the hostel hygiene, requiring cleaning staff to overwork and clean up after Sri Lankans use it which they do not have to do for others. 

2. Sri Lankans are inconsiderate and hog the AC and seem to take long naps under the shower which they will leave only when the door is banged upon to near breaking point by a desperado fellow hostel being. 

3. Sri Lankan young men are unused to being in dormitories that house both men and women as is common in Europe and practiced in some hostels in Sri Lanka. The management of these hostels state that they have been faced with multiple issues where a friendly nature is misinterpreted as promiscuous. 

4. Sri Lankans are considered unruly and not able to abide by the rules of the hostel. One Sri Lankan staff member of a southern hostel stated as follows: “I have been in the tourism industry for over three decades. This is a tropical country. The most comfortable clothing for Sri Lanka is lose, strappy clothing. Most young foreign women choose this attire when they arrive in Sri Lanka, dreaming of a sunny holiday. But most Sri Lankan men seem to think that this attire is chosen through a craving to showcase their bodies. This thinking pattern makes them act in a crazy manner if they see a foreign woman dressed as someone in their right mind would in a warm, humid country as this.”

Concluding analysis 

The concluding analysis could be that barring all Sri Lankans from international hostels creates an artificially curated atmosphere that possibly keeps away those who do not behave in the prototype of indiscipline. Interestingly, we have not received the worldview about Sri Lankans, as shared by Sri Lankan international hostel operators, from non Sri Lankans into the same model of tourism business. 

One foreign family in Arugambay who have lately leased their longstanding international hostel to a youth from Unawatuna to operate insisted that all nationalities have ‘same bad types of behaviour’ and that all nationalities display generally ‘good form’ of behaviour.’

So what can we fathom from all this?

Wisdom would speak thus. Humans evolve. This is why youth from especially the Western world travel. This is amongst their priority after leaving university or before entering university. They are technically and temporarily poor, yes, but they want to see places, meet people and make a change in the world. What Sri Lankan backpacker hostels do by keeping ALL Sri Lankan youth away, by performing a dubious sterilisation of atmosphere, is warp the minds of travellers as well as the local staff.

For example, the Sri Lankan young woman from Thalawakelle recruited to work in one of the beach side international hostels shared that several of the (white skinned) youth are given free accommodation and food for carrying out the task of ‘creating a comfortable vibe.’ I asked her why she cannot be tasked with this – well at least where the female travellers are concerned. She surreptitiously glanced at the video cameras fixed at every corner and shrugged. She is 23 years old and has been working in this place for a year. It seemed that the anti Sri Lankan sentiments of her boss had clouded her own view of Sri Lankans. 

Although she and her family lived in an overcrowded line room in the tea plantation sector, she had adopted a demeanour that changed in a chameleon manner, depending on who she was interacting with. I hung around a bit and observed her speaking to youth whose skin was neither brown nor black. She seemed to be a different person. To me she had a permanent frown that etched her forehead. 

I stayed at this hostel for three days where free vegetarian dinner (usually two curries and rice) are provided which the white skinned sojourners of planet earth waited for almost a whole day, saving money by fasting almost 24 hours. However, with the hostel again extremely strictly preventing any locals (probably unless they are associated with the media!) from the premises, the entire dinner time conversation tended to be somewhat patronisingly condescending). Examples of some of the eavesdropped conversations between five white skinned backpackers – three women and two men we will attempt to capture below which show that the European youth who stayed in these Sri Lankan barred hostels acted as replicas of their Sri Lankan management. The hostels which had an equality policy tended to influence both the local and foreign youth in a positive manner.

Eavesdropped conversations

Now, for the shreds of eavesdropped conversation between the white skinned youth.

“Yeah man, What the fxxx, I tell you, it was fxxxing weird – this fellow in a dress…’

“It’s called a sarong, I think” 

“Is that so. Whatever.”

“Nepal was also interesting. You get the feel man, you get the feel. Dirt, dust, horror.” Everyone laughs.

At this point someone detects my silent vigilance.

“Hellow, where are you from,” a 19-year-old white-skinned student who is given free accommodation and food for networking turns on a sugary look.

Sri Lanka, I say.

“Oh, I see, how cool. You live abroad?”

 I reply that I live here. But I do not say I am researching racial bias in backpacker hostels.

“Cool, cool,” she mutters probably wondering how long I will sit at the table.

I decide to free her from her torment.

“I am going to the dorm,” I announce with a smile that I muster my entire willpower to produce. I think it would have looked like an Eeri Yaka mask. 

I venture up the stairs to the dorm where I think the Sri Lankans, who gatecrash like me are given the highest ‘floor’ of the bunk bed, maybe with hope that they break their neck or depart fearing such a mishap.

With many failed attempts and gyrations, I finally climb a bunk bed that looks like it was sourced from some torture chamber.

So dear, reader, you just absorbed a piece of writing that took nine months to research and included a trail derailment, a near death experience by racial dogs. We will await you next week in the Katys region in Jaffna where you will see a whole new world of community tourism where Sri Lankans do not under whatever condition bar any place of tourism in the Northern Province for fellow Lankans.