Starter Kit. Idea 98 of 500. Cluster 4
The April New Year in a village, open to visitors: the games, the sweets and the customs, explained by the families who keep them
The mechanism, from the book
An app that tells people what is happening tonight converts a day visit into a 2-night stay.
The first step
Ask 3 families in one village whether they would welcome a small group of visitors on the morning of the New Year, to play the games, share the sweets and hear what each custom means. Agree a fee per guest that goes to the families, write the day on one page, and offer 8 places through 2 guesthouses nearby. A full group, and a family willing to host again next year, is the proof.
- Who pays first
- A visitor in the country in April who wants to see the New Year inside a family, not watch it from a hotel lawn.
- What leaves today
- Visitors pass through the New Year without knowing it is happening, and the families who keep the customs earn nothing from a festival most visitors never see.
Ask first
- Department of Cultural Affairs. Ask whether they know villages that keep the New Year games and would welcome visitors.
- Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority. Ask whether a village day sold to visitors must go through a registered operator.
Check before you spend
That each host family agrees in writing to its fee and its part of the day, and what insurance covers visitors joining the games.
Find out these three numbers
- What would a visitor pay for a full day at the New Year?
- How many families in the village would host and explain the customs?
- What do the sweets, games and meals cost for each visitor?
A comparison from the book
Zermatt's lesson. Chapter Fourteen
"experiences rather than sights, courses rather than meals, souvenirs that are actually from here"
A New Year day with a family is an experience, not a sight, and that is what visitors stay for.
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.