Idea 495 of 500. Cluster 27: The north and the east
Guesthouses on the islands off Jaffna (Delft and Nainativu), with the boat, the meals and a guide in one booking
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
Visit Delft and Nainativu and ask 3 families on each whether they would host visitors in a spare room, cook a meal and walk them round. Agree a price with a boatman for the crossing, put the boat, the meals, the room and a guide into one booking, and offer it to 2 guesthouses in Jaffna for their guests. Guests who stay the night rather than return on the same boat are the proof.
- Who pays first
- A visitor in Jaffna who wants to see the islands but does not want to arrange the boat, the meals and the stay separately.
- What leaves today
- Visitors cross for a few hours and return the same day, so the money for a night and a meal is spent back in Jaffna instead.
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 495 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.