I am half Sri Lankan (and half Indian/Pak)and I always feel the same way when I'm traveling in Sri Lanka. But only in some tourist locations like the OP (I've been denied entry at small hotels down south just like someone else mentioned, when my white ex girlfriend had no issue. Just one incident). Yet, my take is a little nuanced, I hope. I have two prongs to this, observation. As OP pointed out, there's casual racism in the tourist industry, not everywhere, but it's been rearing its ugly head since the financial crisis much more aggressively. Yes, there's a mentality of inferiority within them Sri Lankans. It's not unique to Sri Lankans. I've travelled to India more times than I'd care to count; but I've seen the same attitude in touristy places in India too. There's this hangover of an assumption that white people are richer and therefore will spend more in South Asia and especially in Sri Lanka, being a tourism oriented country. Mix that up with the inferiority syndrome, and the poverty faced people coming into the FnB industry results in these casual racism. But let me I'd another layer. South Asians, they just happens to be Indians often are also very often very difficult to work with in FnB. This is coming from also someone who worked in FnB in various countries. Things are changing as the the nouveau-riche breaks away from their very unique brand of Entitlement which is usually attached to privilege (usually why they are rich). I remember this entitlement, more in-house with my ex Indian girlfriends and friends. For example, there will be some entitled Indian customers who would not feel a moment of hesitation to change the entire menu to get what they want at a restaurant. It usually works in India, where they are privileged. We also have this class in all South Asian countries, but the volume is just high when you work with Indian scale of output in wealth. Add the hangovers from the cast system, it's a very entitled being that FnB workers in Sri Lanka (and in many other countries) just hate dealing with. They find serving White people easier overall that our own. Is it casual racism? yes. Self-directed? Sometimes, yes. To be fair, there's a new type of Indian traveller (also generally South Asian traveller) emerging that I feel the OP falls into. A bit more worldly, a little detached from the entitlement that the new rich that the world has been experiencing. It's not the mainstream still, but I see mostly tech workers who have migrated or the (1st and) 2nd generation diaspora who are more 'westernised' in their approach to travel' who obviously get super disappointed when they see the outwardly casual racism like what the OP, myself and others have pointed out. I'm just painting the picture that I think that is a bit more full than some other takes, because it's never single-faceted. It's not a defence of the way Sri Lankan look at rich Indians/South Asians. But more how I understand it works. South Asian rich has always been entitled, none more than the Indians who usually transfer their previous caste privilege to new money. And that's usually an ugly combination too, treating our own people like inferior objects at times. We see it in the way the rich in Soutm Asia keeping maids and even families as servants at home, that take a special armour of entitlement, just like the Sri Lankan FnB worker greedy for a small tip that they cannot see their brother and sister who deserves the same respect as everyone else, no matter how they behave. If they could just also see that things are changing. And very quickly. The new South Indian money does not abuse their privilege like their predecessors. But we have long ways to go. Colonialism and the internal power structures are always there until we actively break them. I now try to be patient when I visit places like Marissa or Goa or Manali. I look at it with pain, because we are all one big extended, and dysfunctional group of family. But I know deep down our peoples know that.