Starter Kit. Idea 103 of 500. Cluster 5
Yoga and pilates retreats
The mechanism, from the book
Ayurveda is a system of medicine the world already recognises and seeks out. The demand is there; what Sri Lanka needs is more of its own names, known and asked for abroad.
The first step
Approach a yoga or pilates teacher abroad who already runs classes with a loyal group, through their public studio page. Offer to handle everything on the island, rooms, food, transfers and a shaded practice deck, for a fixed price per student. Ask them to put the week to their students. If 8 sign up, the teacher has a retreat and you have a client who brings a new group every year.
- Who pays first
- A teacher abroad with a loyal class who wants to lead a retreat but has nobody on the ground to run it.
- What leaves today
- Teachers abroad already sell tropical retreat weeks; the margin stays with whichever country has a host ready to take the whole group.
Ask first
- Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority. Ask how a retreat with accommodation registers for guests from abroad.
- Inland Revenue Department. Ask how fees paid by guests from abroad should be recorded for tax.
Check before you spend
That teachers hold a recognised teaching qualification, that the space is safe, and that insurance covers injuries during classes.
Find out these three numbers
- What do yoga retreats in the region charge per week?
- How many guests make a retreat pay?
- What does a teacher cost for a season?
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
From the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? by Dr Maheshika Halbeisen. The idea and the mechanism are the book's; this kit was written for the site.