look news india
Uttarakhand Tourism Development Council has launched an online booking portal for booking homestays in the state. Booking for homestays in Uttarakhand can now be done on www.uttarastays.com. This is probably the first such initiative of any state tourism department where a state-sponsored homestay booking portal has been launched.
Homestay owners can register their homestays for booking on this portal by providing information about the homestay and signing an agreement. Homestay owners will not be required to pay any integration fee or platform fee or share a percentage of their revenue with Uttarakhand Tourism.
The portal will provide authentic information about homestays to the general public and provide a seamless mechanism to book homestays online. Users can also rate homestays on the platform. Through this, homestays will get genuine feedback on their services, which will also give them an opportunity to improve their services.
There are around five thousand homestays registered with the Uttarakhand Tourism Department. Uttarakhand Tourism is continuously committed to promote the local economy through various tourism related activities. This initiative is a strong and important step towards increasing the revenue of homestay owners by providing them an online medium without any charge. This initiative is an effort to provide an online medium for booking to homestay owners. Uttarakhand Tourism Department is providing subsidy under Deendayal Upadhyaya Homestay Yojana to develop homestays in the region. Apart from this, homestay owners are also being provided training in various skills and services to enhance their customer service skills. With the online portal, the Tourism Department has added another dimension to the promotion of homestays.
Tourism Secretary and Chief Executive Officer of Uttarakhand Tourism Development Council Sachin Kurve said that this three-pronged strategy to strengthen the homestay infrastructure in the state, which includes assistance through subsidy, skill training to homestay owners and booking through online portal, will prove to be a milestone. Kurve has invited all homestay owners to register their homestays on the portal. In future, there is a plan to connect homestays with wellness centers in different areas, so that tourists can also avail services like yoga, naturopathy, panchkarma, Ayurvedic massage etc.
