Starter Kit. Idea 494 of 500. Cluster 27
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.
The 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.
Ask first
- Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority. Ask what registration a kitesurfing school and a guiding service need.
- Department of Wildlife Conservation. Ask what rules apply to guided walks near the wetlands and protected areas.
Check before you spend
Confirm written permission from the salt-pan owner, the instructor's qualification and insurance, and the rules for visiting protected wetlands.
Find out these three numbers
- What will visitors pay for a week of kitesurfing lessons?
- Which months bring the strongest wind on this coast?
- How many visitors can walk the salt pans without disturbing the birds?
A comparison from the book
Zermatt. Chapter Five
"Glacier skiing so the season never ends"
A second season fills the months when the first one is quiet.
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.