Unlocking Assam’s homestay tourism potential

The rural tourism sector in Assam is poised for a big leap with the state government aggressively promoting homestays in the state. The
withdrawal of negative travel advisories for most parts of Assam by the European Union after 47 years has led to the new policy push for homestays. Assam is anticipating a surge of travellers from 27 EU countries to experience rural landscapes, cultural practices and heritage across the state following the withdrawal of the restrictive travel advisory. The state government's push for homestay promotion is seen as a preparation to extend warm hospitality to tourists from EU countries as they prefer homestays over hotels. Creation of a single-window digital platform for online booking of homestays, as mooted by Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, is a timely and decisive intervention for leveraging digital technology to boost tourism in Assam and increasing the visibility of niche tourism products offered by the state in the highly competitive global tourism markets. The state cabinet aims to approve a new set of rules for homestays to regulate them through standardisation and registrations. It will help the transformation of this emerging sector of Assam tourism into a transparent and accountable framework which is essential to boost the confidence of homestay guests. Registration of homestays will strengthen the monitoring mechanism for ascertaining if homestay owners are strictly adhering to the prescribed list of Dos and Don'ts, such as maintenance of basic hygiene and cleanliness, serving safe foods, ensuring safety measures, etc. The new rules making it mandatory for homestays to have a minimum of eight rooms will remove the uncertainty over availability of adequate accommodation and prevent overcrowding in rural settings. This will help tour operators and visiting guests to be sure of getting the required number of homestay accommodations in a particular destination during online booking. Currently, due to lack of standardisation, tour operators cannot assure tourists and travellers preferring homestays over hotels about the availability of adequate accommodation, and implementation of the new rules will remove this gap. Homestays play a crucial role in spreading the uniqueness of cultural practices of ethnic communities, as guests are keen to experience the way of life from close quarters. A robust homestay network, therefore, will unlock the potential of employment avenues for local youths as cultural interpreters. The tourism department must initiate training for cultural interpreters with the help of community experts to enable homestay owners to cater effectively to their guests' demand for authentic interpretation grounded in community knowledge. Homestays in the state can also play a crucial role in addressing the problem of surpassing the carrying capacities of iconic tourism destinations such as Kaziranga and Manas. Increasing footfalls of tourists in these iconic destinations signify their growing popularity and also help strengthen revenue generation. However, surpassing the carrying capacity in such ecologically fragile destinations also brings the sustainability challenge, as a surging number of visitors leads to the creation of more hotels and operation of more fossil-fuel-run vehicles, which deepen the environmental concern. In addition to experiencing culture and heritage, many rural areas of Assam offer opportunities to engage with wildlife and nature, making the availability of quality homestay facilities essential for reducing pressure on ecologically fragile iconic sites. The traditional and customary hospitality of indigenous communities in the state provides a natural competitive advantage in driving tourism growth through homestays. Formalisation of homestays is pivotal to tapping this natural advantage into a strong and sustainable pillar of the rural economy. The weaving practice, along with nature-inspired motifs, organic farming practices, conservation of local disaster-resilient seeds, tea cultivation, food habits, traditional land classification systems, wise water use, rituals, fishing techniques, cultural and religious festivals, co-existence with nature, etc., which differ from place to place and among different communities across the state, can provide the guests truly a unique and immersive experience. Apart from homestay owners, guests also strictly observing the Dos and Don'ts is crucial for smooth operation of homestays. Tour operators and other tourism stakeholders being familiar with community norms and codes is essential to help visitors understand the importance of being a responsible guest and respectfully engage with local customs and host communities. The spread of the internet and a robust digital financial ecosystem in the state is a major advantage for scaling community-based rural tourism through responsible and reliable homestays. Wide publicity of the new homestay rules approved by the state cabinet in different languages will help the homestay owners and other stakeholders understand their responsibilities, compliance requirements and benefits of formalisation through registration. The state government providing infrastructure improvement incentives and facilitating bank credits to needy individual homestay owners will be crucial to motivate them to upgrade the existing single or two-three-room homestay facilities into standard eight-room accommodation. The state government has rolled out a forward-looking policy. The real challenge, however, lies in effectively implementing it to fully unlock the potential of Assam's homestay tourism.