Idea 160 of 500. Cluster 7: The infrastructure that makes the rest possible
Tour guide certification programmes
The mechanism, from the book
The tiny business pathway. A rural woman with an exceptional product should not need photography, English copy, packaging design and a distributor before the world can find her.
Every idea in cluster 7 uses this mechanism.
A first step
Write a clear standard for a certified guide at one site or town: what they must know, which languages, first aid and conduct. Show it to five guides and two tour operators and ask whether guides would pay to be assessed, and whether operators would prefer to hire certified ones. If both say yes, run the first assessment day and charge a fee.
- Who pays first
- A tour operator who needs to show foreign clients that the guide they are paying for has been properly assessed.
- What leaves today
- A visitor cannot tell a trained guide from an untrained one, so price wins and the good guides earn the same as the rest.
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. SeventeenOne Building
The dozen small things that turn a product into money that stays
More from cluster 7
Idea 160 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.