Starter Kit. Idea 129 of 500. Cluster 6
Luxury picnic catering at heritage sites
The mechanism, from the book
Dilmah says it earns over 3 times the national average price for tea, because it does its own blending, branding and packing. The proof has been sitting inside the industry all along.
The first step
Find out the rules for eating near the heritage site closest to you and choose a permitted spot nearby with a view. Put together one hamper with local food, proper linen and a printed menu, photograph it, and show the photos to the concierge at two hotels that send guests to the site. Ask what price they would charge guests. One booking proves it.
- Who pays first
- A hotel concierge whose guests visit the heritage site and want something more memorable than a packed lunch.
- What leaves today
- Visitors spend a day at the heritage site and buy almost nothing from the people around it, so the day's value leaves with the tour bus.
Ask first
- Central Cultural Fund. Ask whether picnics can be served at their sites, and where.
- the area Medical Officer of Health. Ask what hygiene standard catering away from a kitchen must meet.
Check before you spend
That food may be served at the site, that all rubbish is removed, and that cold food stays safe in the heat.
Find out these three numbers
- What will visitors pay for a luxury picnic at the site?
- What does one picnic cost to prepare?
- How many guests a week would book?
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.