Starter Kit. Idea 161 of 500. Cluster 7
Language training for the tourism trade
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.
The first step
Run a 6 week evening class in German or French for tuk-tuk drivers, waiters and guesthouse staff in one tourist town, charging a small fee per session. Teach only the sentences they use at work. At the end, ask a hotel owner whether they would pay to put their staff through the next class. A paid group booking from an employer shows the demand.
- Who pays first
- A guesthouse or hotel owner whose guests speak German or French and whose staff speak only English.
- What leaves today
- Visitors who cannot be understood spend less and do not come back; language keeps their spending with local businesses.
Ask first
- Tertiary and Vocational Education Commission. Ask how a language course for tourism workers can be recognised.
- Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority. Ask which languages visitors most need in each region.
Check before you spend
That the course is registered if it gives certificates, that teachers are fluent, and that the languages taught match the visitors arriving.
Find out these three numbers
- Which languages do visitors in this town speak most?
- What will workers or employers pay per course?
- How many workers would enrol in the first term?
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.