Pekoe Trail has untouched potential for niche tourism, says tourism expert

Sri Lanka can do more for niche tourism, such as aligning with agritourism
Other countries are already doing so: Pekoe Trails Organisation Founder

The tourism sector needs to focus more on the Pekoe Trail and its value for niche tourism, The Pekoe Trail Organisation Founder Miguel Cunat said at a recent forum discussion on attaining the Geographical Indication (GI) certification for Ceylon Tea.

Sri Lanka also needs to understand niche tourism, so we can attract more tourists through biking, hiking, surfing and other soft adventure activities, he added.

“Niche tourism is high value and low impact. It calls for people staying in remote locations for longer and they spend the dollar more equitably,” Cunat noted.

Located in the central highlands, the Pekoe Trail is Sri Lanka’s leading long-distance hiking route. It spans 300km of the tea country and has been featured in Time Magazine, National Geographic, Conde Nast Traveller and the BBC among other travel magazines and websites.

Miguel Cunat

Cunat said the Pekoe Trail was probably the “world’s largest manicured garden” and people were willing to pay for the experience of visiting it.

“We need to steward this asset collaboratively because it needs all stakeholders involved. We need the right technical expertise and to fund it appropriately,” he added.

As reported by Daily Mirror on October 14, 2025, the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) announced that over 1.7 million tourists had visited Sri Lanka this year, with the first 12 days of October seeing 62,741 arrivals.

Last month, the SLTDA also announced that it had revised its 2025 target of three million tourist arrivals to 2.6 million.

As such, Cunat said it was important to understand what kind of impact these additional numbers would have on the country’s tourism sector. He also cautioned against making the same mistakes as other global tourist destinations such as Thailand, Bali, Venice and Spain had done, as over-tourism had become a major issue in these locations.

Last month, the government also inaugurated a tourism promotion task force and said it was focusing on enhancing the tourism industry, ensuring the government institutions work under a unified framework and addressing the challenges faced by both tourists and entrepreneurs. (SD)

Source – www.dailymirror.lk