Starter Kit. Idea 481 of 500. Cluster 26
Trincomalee: the summer beach town, sold for the months when the south-west coast has its monsoon
The mechanism, from the book
Every city has one thing it could be known for, and most are not yet known for it.
The first step
Ask 5 guesthouses on the south-west coast what happens to their bookings in the monsoon months, and where guests who still want a beach go instead. Write a one-week Trincomalee stay for that season, with a guesthouse, the beach, a boat trip and a price, and send it to 3 travel agents abroad who already sell the south-west coast. Bookings for the summer months are the proof.
- Who pays first
- A family abroad whose summer holidays fall in the south-west coast's monsoon, and who still want a beach in Sri Lanka.
- What leaves today
- Visitors who find the south-west coast wet in summer book a beach in another country, when the island's other coast is open for them.
Ask first
- Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority. Ask which guesthouses and hotels in Trincomalee are registered and open in the summer months.
- the local council (Municipal Council, Urban Council or Pradeshiya Sabha). Ask what permits beach cafés and water sports need on the town's beaches.
Check before you spend
That every place you sell is registered and insured, that boats and instructors for water sports are qualified, and that travellers carry insurance.
Find out these three numbers
- What would a visitor pay for a summer week in Trincomalee?
- Which tour operators abroad stop selling the south-west coast in its monsoon?
- How many rooms in the town stand empty in summer?
A comparison from the book
The island. Chapter Two
"no winter to stop it, and two monsoons"
Two monsoons means one coast is always in season; sell the east when the south-west is wet.
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.