Ferry and sea-plane services between the coastal towns, the way islands elsewhere connect their coast

A first step

Choose two coastal towns with a slow road between them and time the trip by bus and by car. Then ask guesthouse and hotel owners in both towns whether their guests would pay for a boat, what they would pay, and how many a week. A clear yes at a stated price from the owners, set against the road time, shows whether a trial run with a hired boat is worth doing.

Who pays first

A traveller moving along the coast between two towns, who will pay more for a fast crossing than for a long day on the road.

What leaves today

Visitors spend holiday days on the road or skip the far coast, so towns that the sea could connect earn nothing from them.

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. TwoAn Island Nobody Has Counted
  An ocean eight times the size of the land

More from cluster 13

• 251Sailing charters and a yacht marina at Galle or Trincomalee, with the crew trained here
• 252Diving schools at the wrecks of Trincomalee and the reefs of the east, certified to international standard
• 253Sport fishing charters with catch-and-release, sold to the Gulf and Europe
• 254Sea-cucumber and seaweed farming in the northern lagoons, which Japan and Korea buy
• 255Tuna graded, loined and vacuum-packed at the harbour for the sashimi market, not sold whole
• 256Crab and prawn from the lagoons as a branded chilled export, with the lagoon's name

All 20 ideas in this cluster