The New Zealand Herald has published a travel feature on Sri Lanka’s Northern Province, arguing that the region is opening to international visitors while remaining largely absent from mainstream tourist itineraries.
The piece, by travel writer Ben West and published Tuesday, recounts a journey from Jaffna to the Mannar Peninsula and Wilpattu National Park. West writes that new hotels, restaurants and improved roads are drawing visitors north, but that the process is “still in its infancy” — citing as evidence that the Sri Lankan hotel chain Jetwing operates 17 properties in the south of the island and one in the north.
Most foreign visitors, he notes, confine themselves to the southern circuit of Sigiriya, Kandy, Galle and the southern national parks. The north was closed to travellers during the civil war between 1983 and 2009, and Jaffna sustained heavy destruction, with around 80 percent of homes damaged and widespread landmine contamination. West describes the city today as relaxed and safe, with little of that history visible to a visitor.
The feature highlights Jaffna Fort, built by the Portuguese in 1618 and later expanded by the Dutch; the Keerimalai Naguleswaram temple and its coastal freshwater springs; and the Kadurugoda archaeological site at Chunnakam, where roughly 20 small coral-stone stupas survive. In Mannar it covers the region’s feral donkey population, descended from animals brought by Arab traders, and a veterinary centre that has treated more than 500 of them since 2019.
West also presses the island’s value proposition, quoting typical costs of about US$170 for a luxury hotel room, US$6.50 for a restaurant meal and US$5 for a 160-kilometre train journey. A direct Colombo–Jaffna train takes about seven hours; a domestic flight, 50 to 75 minutes.
The coverage comes as national arrivals run well ahead of recent years. Sri Lanka recorded 1,468,980 tourist arrivals between January 1 and August 18, according to the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority, with India, the United Kingdom and France the largest source markets in August.
