Homestay Policy

Proposed by Association for Conservation and Tourism (ACT), an NGO engaged in community empowerment using tourism as a tool and conservation as a religion...

The Macmillan Dictionary describes homestay as

(noun) a visit in which you pay to stay in someone’s house rather than in a hotel, hence however and whatever we want to elaborate, the meaning is sharing the house with the host. We must also understand that the kitchen under such circumstances is common and the same food is usually being cooked for the host family is shared. In the past, visitors considered this where there were no hotels or lodges in remote areas or in cities where hotels were packed and there used to be a high demand for accommodation.

The Homestay concept has undergone a great change. Today visitors seeking for Homestay bookings look forward to authentic local experiences. Hence, the qualities of homestays are also diverse infrastructure wise, but all of them confirm strong local experience. Even where there are hotels, resorts and lodges, a homestay with 01 or 02 rooms are always in demand for a particular category of tourists who look forward to the feel of the place and the people.

‘Homestay Lodge’ is a little beyond the Homestays, where the host due to continuous pressure of tourists, looks forward to the privacy for the family and hence because of need creates an infrastructure adjoining to the residence, managed and run by the family from home. The kitchen and dining here is dedicated for the visitors only but joined by the host. The number of rooms are usually between 03 to 06, but sometimes extends to 08. Though the size is that of a lodge, but being run by the adjoining home, the authentic local encounters are still retained.

The Homestays are easy to maintain, uses mostly local resources and are not affected to a big extend for bad seasons as the overheads are extremely low. This is also a pride for the host, as he can host his own family guests with a good standard. The Homestay also helps to upgrade the hygiene and living standard of the host family, giving better opportunities to the younger generation towards global exposure. The appreciation of the visitors for the local natural and cultural phenomenon gives a sense of pride to the host community.

The Homestay movement helps the remote host communities to come out of isolation, thereby helping to understand and respect cultural differences, helping a generation to think locally and link globally. The resource exchange between the visitor and the host is more rooted and helps in creating a global community seeing eye to eye with each other.

A proposed policy for Homestays in North Bengal:

The word Homestay is often misused in tourism circles, mainly in registration and promotion. Hence, there is an immediate need to create a definition for homestays and provide a legal framework to recognize them under the central or state Governments. The major need is at nature based destinations, among people living in and around nature reserves and need to be involved in the conservation process. The proposals are as follows:

1)      The aim of the homestays in and around the natural heritage centres would be (a) improve the overall quality of village people’s life, (b) preserve and reinforce the importance of local cultures, (c) empower villagers to make their own decisions about their way of life and (d) contribute to the conservation of natural resources and the environment.

2)      Each of the homestay clusters are to be supported by a rural tourism resource centre which will help in capacity building of the homestay entrepreneurs, ecoguides and other ecotourism service providers, the monitoring will also be coordinated from these centres and research in creating better experiences locally.

        The resource centre will also monitor to issues like hygiene and child labour or any other activity related to cause a negative impact on the local society.

3)      The homestays to have a maximum of 01 to 03 rooms with shared or attached toilets, dining and kitchen is common with the host and the family manages and serves the visitors or paying guests at home.

4)      The Homestay Lodge should be restricted to a structure adjoining or in continuity to the home. The management to be restricted to the family only. The number of rooms should be between 04 to 10 with exclusive dining and kitchen for the visitors or paying guests.

5)      There should be subsidy if available of any kind, to be confined for the initiation of Homestays only. The Homestay Lodge to only receive recognization from the Government, but will be eligible for subsidy at par with any private enterprise related to small hotel.

6)      The Homestay or Homestay Lodge cluster must have a solid waste management system to be introduced by the resource centre.

7)      Similarly, the cooking fuel must be restricted to alternative fuels like Gobar (Cow Dung) Gas plant or Bio-Gas plant or at the best to LPG or Kerosene.     

The Bandhs of North Bengal and the Tourism Industry

8^th of August, 2011 was being celebrated as Baishe Sraban (the day of Kabiguru Rabindranath Tagore’s  Mahaparinirvana) in the whole of the world with special mention of the Chief Minister of West Bengal, Miss.Mamata Banerjee, who had declared this day as a state holiday with celebrations throughout the state. North of West Bengal, popularly and officially known as North Bengal was also prepared to celebrate the day in Darjeeling Hills, Dooars and Terai. Several poets, singers, novelists and visitors from across the country were invited to the celebrations of North Bengal.

A sudden Bandh which was called made most of these people flee the region on 8^th itself or 9^th before dawn, highly stressed and promising never to come back. From Bagdogra Airport to Rajabhatkhawa railway station, saw stranded tourists/visitors everywhere in Terai and Dooars. This is not the first time that this had pattern of Bandhs have started in North Bengal. Infact this has become a culture for all small and big political parties of North Bengal. The memories of the past three and a half years from the hills is fresh in the minds of the travel industry and now they are afraid that the same trend may start in Dooars and Terai.

The 02 major industries of the past century, timber has already died and tea has seized to grow. Tourism, a self developed industry of this region, the growth of which started 02 decades ago, is not only a green industry, but also an industry without boundaries. Unlike other industries of North Bengal, this has grown mainly with more private initiative than Government involvement. Small, isolated and under-developed areas have started becoming tourism destinations. For generations where land had just to be occupied for residence and later a politically initiated ‘patta’ to be issued, today sees land value not less than Rs.5 lakhs (five hundred thousand) per acre. Many hill and forest areas, where there is scarcity of agricultural land and where settlers were mainly dependent on forest produce and live below the poverty line, today private tourism initiatives have shown them light. 20 years ago the tourism destinations in the whole of North Bengal and Sikkim was mainly restricted to Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Gangtok and Jaldapara, today you cannot count them on your fingers. The local initiatives have brought investors in tourism from all over the country, without the formal and hyped invitation of the Government. The development of the tourism industry in the North Bengal and Sikkim region has been silent, without the sight of big industry walls and smoking chimneys. It has not only brought economy, ownership and employment to the local people, but several responsible tourism initiatives have developed educational, medical and other social infrastructure developments. This complimentary livelihood and income source has brought good amount of foreign exchange, tax revenue and other economic benefits for the Government. Even several Government Departments, other than tourism has resorted to tourism activities for their income generation, with the Forest Department taking the lead.

All these above development, which is still in the increase, boosting grass-root level economy, confirming social stability and peace, is being crushed at the bud with continuous ‘BANDHS’. The visitors mainly come to this region for the natural and cultural heritage, which is there in many parts of this country. We must understand that tourists/visitors contribute immensely to this region economically, socially and ecologically by sharing the existing infrastructure that we have. Any development which is done for them is beneficial to the local residential population, be it roads, drinking water, medical and other facilities. In the present situation, all the small and micro investment that has taken place has not colonised and isolated locally, but have integrated with the local population, thereby enhancing the local capacity. In case of tourism, products do not walk to the user, but the user walks to the tourist destination/tourism product. The tourism industry services do not have any shelf-life and cannot be stored or used later, and hence a day lost is the total loss of the services produced for the day. For other industries, the production is used immediately after the completion of Bandh, but for tourism the losses continue for quite some time before and after the Bandhs.

Recently, with the initiative of EHTTOA (Eastern Himalaya Travel and Tour Operators’ Association), a Federation of 14 travel associations from Sikkim and North Bengal, FAST (Forum of Associates and Stakeholders in Tourism) has been formed, specially to plea all political parties to consider keeping tourism out of the purview of Bandhs and lobby with the Government to declare tourism as an emergency service like that of Milk and Medical.

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