Starter Kit. Idea 45 of 500. Cluster 2
Toddy tapping at dawn, watched from the ground, with breakfast after
The mechanism, from the book
The craft cannot be copied and the object can. In Europe people queue to watch glass being blown and then buy the glass.
The first step
Walk to a coconut grove at dawn and ask a toddy tapper whether visitors could watch from the ground and share a breakfast afterwards. Agree a fee for the tapper and for the family who cook. Take two guests from a nearby guesthouse as a paid trial. Their verdict, and the tapper's willingness to repeat it, are the proof.
- Who pays first
- Early risers staying near the coast who want to see a skill they cannot see at home, followed by a real breakfast.
- What leaves today
- The tapper's climb earns only the price of the toddy; watching it at dawn sells the skill and the morning as well.
Ask first
- the Divisional Secretariat. Ask whether toddy tapping on this land is licensed and who holds the licence.
- Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority. Ask whether a dawn visit with breakfast must register as a tourist service.
Check before you spend
That the tapper holds whatever licence tapping needs, that guests stay safely on the ground, and that no alcohol is sold without the right licence.
Find out these three numbers
- What will visitors pay for a dawn visit and breakfast?
- How many tappers would host visitors at their trees?
- Which guesthouses within reach would wake guests early for it?
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.