Youth travel is one of the fastest growing market niches in the world. The social, cultural and economic value of these travels are increasing rapidly while distinctive impacts of youth travel have much broader relevance to global tourism than ever before. Thus, many organisations increasingly taking more active role in developing youth travel policies, products and promotional campaigns. According to many scholars, youth travellers are first time travellers and highly depend on the perceived image when choosing a holiday destination. However there have been relatively less studies done on this market segment nor many studies has been focused on pre-visitation images of youth travellers before they embark on a trip. Sri Lanka is emerging as a new tourism destination in Swedish market after decades of political and ethnic unrest. Therefore, this thesis aims to examine and identify the secondary images (pre-visitation) of Sri Lanka as a tourism destination as it exists in the Swedish youth and student market.The pre-visitation (secondary) images of Sri Lanka as perceived by Swedish youth and students were evaluated through quantitative primary research using both close and open-ended questions. Results suggests that Swedish youth and students recognise Sri Lanka in terms of cultural heritage, natural attractions, climate and local hospitality as positive while attributes such as safety, accommodation, prices and transport system to be negative aspects of Sri Lankan image. Moreover the results clearly showed that Swedish youth and Students have a very limited knowledge about Sri Lanka’s destination attributes.