Walking is a popular mode of transportation in many developing countries. However, walking conditions vary drastically for pedestrians in developing countries compared to those of developed countries. Developing countries often have congested roads, lack proper pedestrian facilities, and experience low driver compliance levels. The choice of one particular walking route from alternative routes under such conditions could depend on many factors. In order to promote a safe city-walking concept, users' route choice behavior and demand for each route must be understood. This research focused on identification of influential factors for walking route choices in a city center of a developing country and developed a probabilistic model to estimate demand for each route. A questionnaire survey was conducted to obtain the most preferred route and corresponding influential factors. In addition, a field survey was carried out to collect length and geometric characteristics of each link of the route network. Descriptive analysis results showed that all survey participants selected'shortest path'as the most influential factor, irrespective of participants’ gender, age, or occupation. In addition, results indicated that factors such as' least crowdedness' and'number of street crossings' become more influential as pedestrians age. Results of this study could be utilized to improve pedestrian facilities in developing countries such as Sri Lanka.