Starter Kit. Idea 265 of 500. Cluster 13
Stays in old lighthouse keepers' cottages, leased from the Ports Authority where it no longer needs them
The mechanism, from the book
An ocean 8 times the size of the land, and a fishing fleet that sells its catch on the beach. The Maldives built a tourism industry on the same ocean, with a fraction of the land.
The first step
Write to the Ports Authority and ask which lighthouse keepers' cottages it no longer needs, and on what terms one could be leased for guest stays. While you wait, post a mock listing for a night in a keeper's cottage with a price in a travel group abroad and count the enquiries. A written answer on lease terms and a list of people asking to book are the two pieces of proof.
- Who pays first
- A couple from Europe or the Gulf looking for one unusual night to anchor a coastal trip, who will pay above a hotel rate.
- What leaves today
- The keepers' cottages stand empty and earn nothing, while unusual heritage stays sell at high nightly prices on other coasts.
Ask first
- Sri Lanka Ports Authority. Ask which body manages each lighthouse and whether buildings can be leased.
- Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority. Ask what a guest stay in a historic building must register.
Check before you spend
Whether the lighthouse building can be leased for guests at all, on what terms, and whether the light must keep working undisturbed.
Find out these three numbers
- Which lighthouses have empty keepers' houses?
- What would a guest pay for a night in one?
- What does making the house fit for guests cost?
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.