Idea 489 of 500. Cluster 27: The north and the east
Batticaloa lagoon tourism: the singing fish, the kayaks, the prawns, sold as a week
The mechanism, from the book
The land, the lagoons and the savings of families abroad are waiting. What comes first is the small business.
Every idea in cluster 27 uses this mechanism.
A first step
Hire 2 kayaks and a local fisherman for a weekend and run an evening paddle on the lagoon to listen for the singing fish, with a prawn supper afterwards. Price it per head and offer it to the guests of the nearest guesthouses. Note what they paid and whether they would stay longer for more days on the water. Guests asking for a full week show the idea holds.
- Who pays first
- A visitor to the east coast looking for something beyond the beach, who pays for an evening on the lagoon and a supper of its prawns.
- What leaves today
- Batticaloa's lagoon is known only as a story, and visitors pass through toward the beaches without spending a night on its water.
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. ThreeWhat We Have Already Built
Jaffna in what we have already built - Ch. SixteenThe Bridge
A nurse who comes home with a credential and not only savings
More from cluster 27
- 486Palmyrah co-operatives owning the processing, the way the coconut list works for the south
- 487Jaffna heritage stays in the old Dutch and Jaffna houses, restored by the families abroad
- 488Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu farm co-operatives with a cold chain to Colombo
- 490Technical colleges in Jaffna and Batticaloa funded by families abroad, with the employers at the table
- 491Trincomalee's Dutch fort and Koneswaram as one managed site, with a shop and a guide service
- 492Passikudah as a family resort town with the standard set by the residents, not the chains
Idea 489 of the 500 in the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? Every one can be started by one person, one family or one small firm.