The meteoric rise of Lankan tourism from the ashes of the economic downturn and civil unrest a year ago now serves as a wake-up call for Kerala, two major foreign tourist destinations in South Asia. Sri Lanka is considered a major competitor to Kerala with both destinations blessed with panoramic landscapes, beaches, wildlife, verdant leaf-cloaked hills, relatively similar cuisine, and similar weather.
However, there has been a growing preference for Colombo by international tourists over Kerala of late, despite the State having beautiful backwaters and being considered a cradle of Ayurveda, for which there are no real equivalents in Sri Lanka.
