Beyond sustainability: Regenerative hospitality helps restore Sri Lankan culture and heritage

Can cul­ture bundled into tour­ism products retain its ‘authen­t­ic’ cre­den­tials and deliv­er her­it­age value to host com­munit­ies and visitors? 

UK-based tour­ism edu­cat­or Ashi­ka Kalu­badan­age reck­ons so as she recon­nects with her own ances­tral her­it­age in Sri Lanka.

Thanks to “Good Tour­ism” Insight Part­ner Tourism’s Hori­zon: Travel for the Mil­lions for invit­ing Dr Ashi­ka Kalu­badan­age to write this “Good Tour­ism” Insight. (You can too.)

The devil dance unveiled

In recent years, the concept of regen­er­at­ive hos­pit­al­ity has gained momentum. Regen­er­at­ive hos­pit­al­ity focuses on sus­tain­ab­il­ity with an emphas­is on the res­tor­a­tion and cel­eb­ra­tion of loc­al tour­ism ‘assets’, includ­ing cul­ture and heritage.

This is espe­cially rel­ev­ant in des­tin­a­tions like Sri Lanka, where cul­tur­al tra­di­tions are deeply rooted but were, for some time, fad­ing from pub­lic view. Thanks to con­tri­bu­tions made by regen­er­at­ive hos­pit­al­ity, cul­tur­al dan­cing, music, tra­di­tion­al food, and vil­lage life­styles are no longer hid­den in Sri Lanka. 

As a child in Sri Lanka, I nev­er saw a dev­il dance. It was tra­di­tion­ally per­formed only in private rituals. Dur­ing my last two vis­its, how­ever, I was deeply moved to see these once-hid­den per­form­ances now embraced and shared with trav­el­lers. The hos­pit­al­ity industry, through hotels, res­taur­ants, and tour­ism pro­viders, is help­ing to pre­serve and pro­mote the dev­il dance and oth­er cul­tur­al practices. 

Thanks to the growth of cul­tur­al tour­ism, today’s trav­el­lers seek more than just lux­ury; they are look­ing for authen­t­ic and mean­ing­ful exper­i­ences. Per­son­ally, even when I travel to oth­er coun­tries, I always look for tra­di­tion­al food, how it’s eaten, and cul­tur­al per­form­ances like music and dance. 

In response to this shift in trav­el­ler pref­er­ences, hos­pit­al­ity and tour­ism busi­nesses in Sri Lanka are embra­cing their cul­tur­al roots to not only attract guests but also revive and strengthen loc­al iden­tit­ies. This aligns with the broad­er goals of sus­tain­able and regen­er­at­ive tour­ism: to con­trib­ute pos­it­ively to loc­al com­munit­ies and eco­sys­tems rather than deplete them (UNWTO, 2020).

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Cooking with communities

One of the most mem­or­able exper­i­ences dur­ing my recent vis­it to Sri Lanka was wit­ness­ing the grow­ing trend of authen­t­ic culin­ary tour­ism, led by loc­al women in vil­lage com­munit­ies. This is more than just a food trend; it’s a mean­ing­ful shift that reflects the prin­ciples of regen­er­at­ive hos­pit­al­ity, where tour­ism act­ively bene­fits the com­munity and pre­serves cul­tur­al traditions.

My tuk-tuk driver asked if I would like to vis­it a nearby fish­ing vil­lage, buy fresh fish, and pre­pare lunch with a loc­al vil­lage woman. He explained that this type of immers­ive exper­i­ence has become pop­u­lar among tour­ists, par­tic­u­larly in the south­ern regions.

Rather than din­ing at a hotel res­taur­ant, many guests now choose to take part in a cook­ing ses­sion, select­ing fresh veget­ables from the hotel’s organ­ic farm and pre­par­ing a meal along­side a vil­lage woman who shares not only her recipes but also her stor­ies. These cook­ing ses­sions often use tra­di­tion­al fire­wood stoves and clay pots, meth­ods rarely seen out­side of rur­al homes. 

What made the exper­i­ence espe­cially power­ful was the storytelling. As she cooked, the host explained the cul­tur­al mean­ings behind the dishes, shar­ing memor­ies and tra­di­tions passed down through gen­er­a­tions. Without real­ising it, we were becom­ing part of a liv­ing cul­tur­al archive, one meal at a time.

This type of exper­i­ence exem­pli­fies what regen­er­at­ive hos­pit­al­ity aims to achieve: cre­at­ing oppor­tun­it­ies that restore loc­al know­ledge sys­tems, foster cul­tur­al pride, and empower com­munit­ies eco­nom­ic­ally and socially (Cole & Mor­gan, 2010). It’s not just about what’s on the plate, but the people, places, and his­tor­ies behind it.

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Cultural performances keep traditions alive

As I men­tioned earli­er, cul­tur­al dances in Sri Lanka were not com­monly seen in pub­lic spaces when I was a child. These per­form­ances, par­tic­u­larly the dev­il dances, Thovil, which vary across regions and fea­ture dis­tinct cos­tumes, were tra­di­tion­ally reserved for ritu­al­ist­ic or cere­mo­ni­al events and rarely made access­ible to wider audiences.

Today, how­ever, there has been a notice­able reviv­al of these tra­di­tions, espe­cially with­in the hos­pit­al­ity sec­tor. Many hotels across Sri Lanka now wel­come their guests with tra­di­tion­al dance per­form­ances, some even includ­ing ele­ments of ritu­al­ist­ic prac­tice as part of the exper­i­ence. Even­ing enter­tain­ment dur­ing din­ner often fea­tures cul­tur­al music and dance, offer­ing tour­ists an enga­ging and immers­ive glimpse into Sri Lanka’s heritage.

Read more “Good Tour­ism” in Sri Lanka

Import­antly, these per­form­ances are not only for tour­ists; they also serve as an oppor­tun­ity for young­er gen­er­a­tions of Sri Lankans to wit­ness and recon­nect with their cul­tur­al her­it­age. When fam­il­ies dine at these ven­ues or attend spe­cial events, chil­dren and young adults are exposed to tra­di­tion­al art forms that might oth­er­wise be at risk of fad­ing away.

Again, as with com­munity culin­ary exper­i­ences, cul­tur­al per­form­ances closely align with the val­ues of regen­er­at­ive hos­pit­al­ity, where the goal is not only to provide enrich­ing guest exper­i­ences but also to restore pride in loc­al tra­di­tions and ensure their con­tinu­ity (Hig­gins-Des­bio­lles, 2018). 

Fur­ther­more, rather than being pass­ive observ­ers, vis­it­ors are invited to par­ti­cip­ate in storytelling through music and move­ment, an exper­i­ence that fosters a deep­er appre­ci­ation of culture.

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My culture is alive again thanks to regenerative hospitality

We often talk about sus­tain­ab­il­ity, but what if we took it a step fur­ther? What if travel could give more than it takes?

The shift towards slower and more exper­i­en­tial travel has encour­aged the hos­pit­al­ity industry to part­ner with cul­tur­al regen­er­a­tion move­ments. This has cre­ated eco­nom­ic oppor­tun­it­ies for both, espe­cially where tra­di­tions like food and dance are deeply rooted in fam­il­ies and com­munit­ies. And one of the most power­ful bene­fits has been inspir­ing young­er gen­er­a­tions to value and embrace their cul­tur­al identity.

So, the next time you travel, seek out moments in which food tells a story, when music con­nects you to the land and people, and where cul­ture is not merely on dis­play, but is alive in the hearts of those who are keen to share it with you.

A heart­felt thank you from me to the hos­pit­al­ity industry in Sri Lanka for bring­ing my cul­tur­al her­it­age back to life for me. 

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What do you think? 

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About the author

Ashi­ka Kalu­badan­age is course dir­ect­or of the MSc Tour­ism, Hos­pit­al­ity and Events at Christ Church Busi­ness School, Can­ter­bury Christ Church Uni­ver­sity, Kent, England.

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Featured image (top of post)

The author Dr Ashi­ka Kalu­badan­age flanked by Sri Lankan cul­tur­al per­formers. This pic and all oth­ers used in this post are used by per­mis­sion and sub­ject to copyright.

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