Jetstar Sri Lanka flights launched, what the new path to Colombo means for Australian travel snobs

There came a moment last week, on Jetstar announcing direct flights from Melbourne to Colombo, that you could hear the collective sigh of the travel snob.

Yes, Sri Lanka is now just a few hours (OK, 10), a few hundred dollars and several thousand kilometres away from becoming Bali.

Soon there’ll be a man from Mornington in linen shorts asking about the best oat “long” mac while explaining Sri Lanka “was better before the tourists turned up”.

There’s a peculiar hypocrisy that wraps travel snobbery. We want the world to be accessible — just not to everyone.

And yet here’s the hard truth: Jetstar isn’t ruining Sri Lanka, because airlines rarely ruin countries; tourists do.

Read the latest edition of ROAM here.

Australians, despite our rather flattering self-image as easygoing, worldly adventurers, are not always the charming lot we imagine ourselves to be.

We may consider ourselves relaxed, curious and culturally sensitive, but spend enough time overseas and you also discover we can be a rather exhausting species.

We’re loud and entitled, move in packs and query why there’s no bacon.

We treat Bali as an extension of the Gold Coast and parts of Europe as a particularly expensive water park.

Wail all you like about Chinese tour groups or Americans, Russians and (certain) Brits abroad, but realise that every nationality has its travelling arsehole quota — and ours is not exactly negligible.

Sri Lanka hasn’t been ruined by a cheap flight, it’s merely become easier to visit.

And it’s up to us not to spoil it.