Finally, the state government has taken a big step to promote the state's tourism industry to be IT-based and international. New online homestay portal has been launched. As a result, home-stay owners will get the opportunity of self-registration online. Only registered homestays can use the term 'homestay'. Northern tourism organizations are happy with the move by the state. However, they say that after registration, the workshop is very important. Because, many people do not know what are the essential and safety restrictions to be followed in providing services to tourists.
Tourism Minister said that there are 5 thousand 479 homestays in the state. Some of them are government regulated, many are not. This is the portal to identify that.
State tourism minister Shankar Ghosh said that it has become very important to use AI technology to keep pace with the digital agenda of global tourism. For that reason, emphasis is being placed on building a technology-based database. Incidentally, the tourism minister of the state is inaugurating the new portal on Thursday. Northern tourism organizations have been making this demand for a long time. Their speech was, the new concept of home-stay eco-tourism. In the last three decades, more than 3500 home-stays have been established in Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar in the north. Some are registered but most are undocumented. The tourism department does not know what infrastructure, services and security measures are there. When there is an accident or a complaint about the service, the uproar starts. To overcome that problem, all the home-stays in the state are required to be registered and undergo several rounds of training. Following the shift in the state, the state tourism department launched an online homestay portal on Thursday to meet the demand.
Raj Basu, leader of tourism organization Help Tourism, said, “This is a very urgent step. We have been saying for a long time that homestays should be regulated and training should be arranged. The state government has taken the first step. After that, training should be arranged with the homestay authorities across the district in several stages.”
According to tourism department sources, homestay owners have to provide their own information and mobile number for registration on the new portal, on the basis of which a one-time password will be generated. After logging in, one has to upload all the required documents required in the portal and map the exact geographical location of the home-stay. Since the location is specific on the map, the tourists who come to visit can easily see where the particular homestay is, what is around and whether it is approved by the state government or not. Tourism Minister said that there are 5 thousand 479 homestays in the state. Some of them are government regulated, many are not. This is the portal to identify that. Also only registered homestays can use the term 'homestay'.