Develop homestays in India
India should follow in the footsteps of countries like Malaysia, Germany and Britain, and develop more and better homestays for a more local and budget-friendly experience, believes Om Prakash, Director, InORBIT Tours. Such homestays could be supervised b
Indian hotels are out-priced by our neighbouring countries such as Thailand, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and even Singapore. As a result, we lose out on inbound budget tourists. I have had the personal experience of staying in homestays in countries such as Malaysia, Germany, Britain and Thailand. I experienced friendly hosts and the stay provided a rich cultural exchange and created long-lasting friendships. In fact, we exchange greetings with most of the hosts and love to get an opportunity to stay with the same hosts whenever possible. All these countries offer homestays, which are endorsed by their tourism ministry, keeping with the standards of cleanliness and safety.
As per the recent report published by the tourism ministry of Malaysia, ‘Tourists love homestays’. Homestays in Malaysia are popular with visitors and in some regions they are fully booked throughout the year. Malaysia has developed homestays holiday packages for international students with the cooperation of travel agents and tour operators. They also offer language and leadership courses to encourage tourists to stay longer. Such focused stays range from seven days to seven months and cost about RM 4,000 (about ` 50,000) onwards. The entire homestay project is under the supervision of Ministry of Tourism of Malaysia.
Germany pioneered and encouraged homestays to meet the demands of business visitors to their famous trade fairs and exhibitions, which attract from one lakh to seven lakh visitors from all over the world at one time. Such arrangements are available in all major trade fair cities of Germany such as Hannover, Düsseldorf, Cologne, Frankfurt and Munich, and are handled by the local tourist offices.
Britain has developed this facility not only in major cities like London, Birmingham, Oxford and Liverpool, but also farmstays in the countryside. These accommodations are marketed by travel agents who have published colourful brochures. Even the British Tourism Authority Office is taking full interest and involved in marketing these homestays.
In Thailand, ‘farmstays’ are becoming popular and a large number of international tourists stay for long in the countryside. Some of them offer agriculture study programmes, too. The homes are inspected and approved by the local tourist offices. The price is also fixed by local tourist authorities. Even the sales and marketing is handled by tourist offices in Germany and through travel trade in other countries. This provides confidence and security to international guests. Most of the families spare one or two rooms in their apartment and provide breakfast and meals if needed, on extra payment.
My recommendations to the Ministry of Tourism are:
Homestays should be introduced on an all-India basis in all the major cities of India. Homestay hosts should provide a clean and exclusive room to guests with breakfast (optional) at extra cost. The stay can be short or long, with special emphasis on safety.
Homestay facility can also be offered in rural India for specialised subjects such as study of agriculture, study of cottage industries and rural development.
Ministry of Tourism should encourage travel agents in India and abroad to offer homestays to their clients visiting India.
Ministry of Tourism should appoint a nodal agency to supervise the marketing and enlisting of homestay hosts after full inspection of the facilities, hygiene and reasonable cost offers. (The views expressed are the author’s own. The publication may or may not subscribe to the same.)
Ministry of Tourism should appoint a nodal agency to supervise the marketing and enlisting of homestay hosts after full inspection of the facilities