Sri Lanka

The Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka (Ceylon until 1972) became independent from British colonial rule on February 4, 1948. The Indian Ocean island nation in South Asia had a population of 21 million as of 2014 and has an area of 65,610 square miles. Sri Lanka has faced ethnic conflict between the Sinhalese majority and Tamil separatists, which has been an obstacle to the country’s development and growth. But the tourism industry developed in spite of the ethnic turmoil, and after a proclamation by the government in May 2009 ending the civil war, the tourism sector in Sri Lanka has progressed quickly.

The Sri Lankan government addressed tourism development in 1966 with the founding of the Ceylon Tourist Board and Ceylon Hotels Corporation, later replaced ...