Chapter 12: Ayurveda Wellness Tourism: An Overview of the Sri Lankan Context

Tourism is one of the key economic activities in the world. Sri Lanka is a country that deeply relies on income from tourism. Hence, identifying new horizons to develop the tourism sector is vital. Since wellness tourism is a trending concept in world tourism, this chapter aimed at Ayurveda-based wellness tourism and ways to uplift the existing outfit through lessons from other Asian counterparts. The researcher conducted 19 in-depth interviews with industry professionals to collect qualitative data inputs to understand the real scenario in Ayurveda wellness service providers. Results showed that Sri Lankan Ayurveda wellness tourism (AWT) is impacted by the actions of three main stakeholders, tourism-related authorities, Ayurveda-related authorities, and service providers. Tourism and Ayurveda-related authorities identified the importance of AWT to some extent, but actions are insufficient or rather bottleneck the sustainable development in the industry. Further, the bureaucracy of authorities prevents the expansion of AWT through medium- or small-scale service providers. The results suggest that Sri Lankan AWT requires long-, mid-, and short-term-based corrective actions.