Halik Azeez critiques tourism's impact on Sri Lanka in ARTMargins article

Halik Azeez's article in ARTMargins Volume 13, Issue 3, pages 109-125, published on October 15, 2024, analyzes how tourism capital has reshaped Sri Lanka's landscapes and culture since the post-war era. Traditional professions like stilt fishing have been reduced to performative roles for tourist consumption, while structural violence in the tea industry remains obscured by exoticization. Foreign entrepreneurs, disguised as tourists, secure long-term property leases, displacing locals and introducing new forms of structural racism. Using images from Instagram hashtags about Sri Lanka, the project reveals how tourist photography commodifies the country's complexities into exotic backdrops for privileged travelers. The article is available via subscription through MIT Press, highlighting neo-Orientalist implications of these transformations.