Idea 494 of 500. Cluster 27: The north and the east
The wind, the salt pans and the flamingos as one coastal business: kitesurfing schools and camps in the windy months, walks through the salt pans where the flamingos feed in winter, and stays sold for both seasons, wherever the coast has the wind and the wetlands
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
Find one kitesurfing instructor with a recognised qualification on a windy stretch of coast, and a guide who knows where the flamingos feed in winter. Agree with a salt-pan owner to allow guided walks. Offer two packages, one for each season, and test them with the guesthouses nearby. The proof is ten paid bookings in the first season.
- Who pays first
- A visitor who comes for the kitesurfing wind, or for the flamingos in winter, and stays a week rather than a night.
- What leaves today
- The wind, the salt pans and the birds earn little now; two seasons of visitors turn them into a living for the coast.
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
- 486Jaffna's Karuthakolomban mango graded, packed and sold under its own name, in Colombo and abroad
- 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
- 489Batticaloa lagoon tourism: the singing fish, the kayaks, the prawns, sold as a week
- 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
Idea 494 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.