Idea 20 of 500. Cluster 1: Stay longer (the $2.4 billion gap)
A guesthouse rating scheme run by the guesthouses themselves, with published inspections
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
Gather five guesthouse owners in one town over tea and propose a simple thing: each inspects another's rooms against a one-page checklist, and the results are published. Write the checklist together at that meeting. If all five sign up and pay a small fee for the first round of inspections, the scheme has its founding members.
- Who pays first
- Well-run guesthouse owners who lose bookings to poorly run neighbours and want a published way to show they are better.
- What leaves today
- Without a trusted local standard, visitors rely on overseas review sites and book cautiously; a published inspection is proof the island owns.
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 20 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.