Starter Kit. Idea 484 of 500. Cluster 26
Anuradhapura: a pilgrim city with lodging, food and interpretation to match its sacredness
The mechanism, from the book
Every city has one thing it could be known for, and each is currently known for nothing in particular.
The first step
Stay 2 nights among the pilgrims and ask 10 families how they eat, where they sleep and what they would pay for a clean room and a guide who explains the sites. Then write a 1-day guided pilgrimage with vegetarian meals and a simple room, price it, and offer it to the organiser of one temple society's pilgrimage trip. One group booking proves it.
- Who pays first
- A temple society organising a pilgrimage bus, which pays per head for clean lodging, proper food and a guide who explains what the pilgrims are seeing.
- What leaves today
- Pilgrims arrive in great numbers and leave the same day, so the lodging, food and interpretation that would honour the city earn nothing locally.
Ask first
- Central Cultural Fund. Ask what licensed guiding at the sacred city requires, and who gives permission.
- Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority. Ask how pilgrim lodging and guided tours can be registered for visitors.
Check before you spend
Confirm that guides are licensed for the sites, lodging and kitchens meet health rules, and the temples are content with the tour's route and conduct.
Find out these three numbers
- What would a pilgrim family pay for a clean room?
- What would they pay for a guided day with meals?
- How many pilgrim families visit on a normal weekend?
A comparison from the book
Sigiriya. Chapter Five
"Sri Lankans deserve decent facilities at their own heritage sites as well"
Pilgrims are the first customers. Give them clean rooms and good guides, and charge fairly.
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.