Idea 11 of 500. Cluster 1: Stay longer (the $2.4 billion gap)
Tea-estate bungalow stays with the working factory as the attraction, not the view alone
The mechanism, from the book
If Sri Lanka earned what the Maldives earns per visitor, the visitors it already has would bring in $2.4 billion a year more.
Every idea in cluster 1 uses this mechanism.
A first step
Approach the manager of a working tea estate that has an empty bungalow and ask whether guests could watch the factory at work, from plucking to packing, and then sleep on the estate. Offer to sell and host the first five bookings yourself on commission, so the estate risks nothing. The manager's yes and one paid booking together prove it.
- Who pays first
- Visitors to the hill country who already tour a factory for an hour and would pay to see the whole working day, then stay.
- What leaves today
- Tea leaves the island in bulk and visitors leave the hills after a quick factory stop; the estate night earns from both.
The idea and the mechanism are from the book. The first step was written for this site as a suggestion; if you know a better one, say so.
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
The only test any idea on this site has to pass. The four rules that go with it are here.
In the book
- Ch. FiveThe Most Photographed Rock in the World
The stay shortened by nearly a quarter, and the $2.4 billion gap
More from cluster 1
- 1Boutique eco-lodges with heritage views
- 2Luxury treehouse stays in forest margins
- 3Glamping with proper service, at sites with none
- 4Heritage homestays in family houses
- 5Floating cabanas on the ancient reservoirs
- 6Forest holiday villages on the Center Parcs model: lodges among the trees, a covered pool, bikes and a lake, so a family stays a week, not a night
Idea 11 of the 500 in the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? Every one can be started by one person, one family or one small firm.