Rituparna Chatterjee – Mumbai
The directorate of tourism, Government of Assam has plans to turn the state’s homestays into an organised sector by mid 2015 and for the same, they would be introducing a set of guidelines and criteria for service standards. Presently, Assam’s homestays is mainly concentrated at Kaziranga National Park and Majuli and the directorate of tourism has been recently promoting homestays in districts like Karbi Anglong and Bongaigaon.
Speaking exclusively to Express TravelWorld, Moitreyee Das, tourist information officer, directorate of tourism, Government of Assam said, “We are coming up with a set of guidelines to streamline our homestays to keep a track of the quality of services being provided to the travellers. There are around 30 to 40 homestays at Kaziranga National Park and 20 to 25 at Majuli– all being unorganised. The guidelines would be implemented in three to four months time as they are still under process.”
Under this initiative, the directorate of tourism would be giving training sessions to the staff managing the homestays. “We will be taking them for trainings to Ranthambore National Park, Kanha National Park and some international destinations to give them an outside exposure and educate them about the service standards followed there. The DCs and officers in different districts will do regular checks of these homestays and the membership can be renewed every year,” opined Das. Moreover, financial assistance will also be provided to resorts and homestays for their further development. “The applications for this will be accepted till February 20, 2015 and some have already applied for it,” she added.
Moreover, there are many hotel projects coming up at Guwahati and Kaziranga National Park, post the completion of which the directorate of tourism has plans to promote Guwahati as a MICE destination. A golf resort is also coming up in the outskirts of Guwahati, which is expected to be operational in a year or two.