INFORMALITY, PULL OF LOCAL CULTURE FUEL BOOM Tourists home in on homestays

AVIJIT SINHA, TT, 16 Oct 2018, Siliguri: A large number of tourists flocking to north Bengal during puja are checking into homestays in offbeat locations to spend quiet days away from the madding crowd.

Homestay facilities have mushroomed across Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Alipurduar. With the demand rising, the owners have started scouting for additional rooms.

"People drawn to homestays because they offer an opportunity for interaction with the local culture. These tourists enjoy staying in a local home, the culinary and other forms of entertainment like song and dance, a trip to a nearby viewpoint. All these are along with the option of visiting popular destinations. Thus the bookings are quite A homestay in Sitong near Kalimpong high during the current season," said Raj Basu, a veteran of the travel trade in the region.

According to Basu, there are around 2,700 homestay rooms available in the three districts. Most of these charge Rs 1,200 per person per day, including food. "There are a number of homestays which have unique characters of their own. While in some places in the Dooars, the owners are excellent story-tellers, visitors to the hills are served pure organic food grown at the premises. In other places, people check in because of the proximity to an orange orchard. These things are missing at hotels of the towns. Informality is yet another factor that has been pulling tourists in," added Basu.

For past couple of years, the state government has been putting impetus for growth of homestays. In fact, the state tourism department has drawn up a plan to extend financial assistance to owners so that they can develop infrastructure of their facilities.

The reason, observers said, is be- cause in these days, tourism has emerged as the sector that has the potential to provide livelihood to more people in the hills and in the Dooars.

According to them, in these days, there is not much of an employment opportunity in tea estates. Also, it would take time to bring in major private investments in the hills and adjoining areas which can generate employment for locals.

Partha Guha, who runs Humro Home --an integrated platform of home stays, said bookings in around 70 homestays are quite high this month.

"We have also received bookings for November and December. Also, improvement of services and facilities at these accommodations is yet another reason," said Guha.