Starter Kit. Idea 388 of 500. Cluster 19
Audio guides for every major site in ten languages, sold by download
The mechanism, from the book
Eight World Heritage Sites and 2,300 years of records, and the country's story is told to the world by other people.
The first step
Record a 10-minute audio guide in English for one site you know well, and pay a native speaker to record it in one more language. Put it on sale as a download, with a sign at the entrance of a guesthouse near the site. The downloads in a month, by language, tell you which languages to do next.
- Who pays first
- An independent visitor at a major site who does not want a group tour and would pay a small sum to understand what they are looking at.
- What leaves today
- Visitors hear the island's history from foreign guidebooks and apps; a local guide in their own language keeps the story and the fee.
Ask first
- Central Cultural Fund. Ask whether audio guides may be promoted at the sites they manage.
- Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority. Ask whether a guide product sold to visitors needs registration.
Check before you spend
That every fact in the script is checked, that you own the recordings, and permission before putting signs at any site or guesthouse.
Find out these three numbers
- How many downloads came in the first month?
- Which languages sold best in the first month?
- What does each new language cost to record?
A comparison from the book
Sigiriya. Chapter Five
"It is to give somebody a reason not to leave tomorrow."
A good guide makes a site richer to stay in, not just quicker to see.
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.