Idea 17 of 500. Cluster 1: Stay longer (the $2.4 billion gap)
Surf lodges at Arugam Bay and Weligama run to the standard of Bali, with lessons and board hire
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
Spend a day in Arugam Bay or Weligama asking surfers where they are staying, what they paid, and what they would pay more for: better boards, coaching, a proper breakfast. Write down the three answers that repeat. Then offer one lodge owner a trial package, bed, lessons and board hire at one price, sold by you for one month. Five bookings prove the model.
- Who pays first
- Beginner and intermediate surfers who want lessons, gear and a bed at one price, and would stay a week if it were easy.
- What leaves today
- Surfers spend on boards, lessons and rooms for weeks; when the standard falls short of Bali, they take the whole trip there instead.
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 17 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.