Look at it this way

Have you heard thousands of people traveling from all over India to Sri Lanka to listen to Ram Katha? By comman sense it would sound pretty lame. The greatest Ram Katha gurus are all based out of India, and if you are not the Sanskar Channel types then let me tell you Morari Bapu is a quite a star in this field. Then why Sri Lanka?

Well here is the sales pitch. The Ram Katha is happening in Ashok Vatika. And again for the non mythological types, this is where Sita was kept by Ravan after abducting her. Interesting pitch indeed. The Ram Katha is starting next week, I think, and the organizer is running a full house. Reservations were all full at least a month or so agao. The Sri Lankan govt is supporting this and why shouldn't it, it would bring in a lot of moolah. It typically translates into 10-12 day per person package (Ram Katha's take close to 7-8 days and add a 3 day site seeing), not sure how many touristy folks would go to SL for 10-12 day vacation.

And here we are in India trying to destroy the Ram Sethu to bring in ships instead of people. Forget the sentimental reasons, I think keeping the Ram Sethu makes more economic sense than dredging it.

BTW, another tit bit on religious tourism, a couple of months ago, there was a 7 day Bhagwat Katha on a cruise liner and folks paid over a Lakh each to book their seats.