Darap eco-tourism team stresses need to standardize and streamline home stay guidelines

GANGTOK, 13 Aug: 35 aspiring entrepreneurs from Darap Eco-Tourism Development Committee (DETDC), the society that has recently been recognized as the top ten Locals in Tourism in the World and the best village tourism website by UK based newspaper, The UK Guardian were in Gangtok as part of a two-day long exposure trip under the capacity building programme for service providers organized by DETDC in collaboration with Sikkim Tourism and sponsored by MoT, GoI.
The society which has put Darap village in West Sikkim on the top home stay destinations in the region and the country have also been awarded the Best Tourism Development Committee in the state in 2010. With 30 rooms in the village now available to tourists, the village has not looked back since it started with the idea back in 2007.
On 11 August, an interactive meet was organized between the stakeholders and representatives of Sikkim Hotel and Restaurant Association (SHRA) and TAAS. Present were SHRA, president, Bhanu Pratab Rasaily, TAAS, general secretary, S Norgey Lachungpa, local entrepreneur Pintso Gyatso and president, DETDC,Sushil Tamang.
During the meet the DETDC president while thanking SHRA for its pivotal role in assisting the committee for the logistics support, initiation of capacity building programmes and development of marketing strategies and publicity through Mayfair resorts and Hotels under its corporate social responsibility initiative spoke on major thrust areas that need to be addressed urgently for the smooth development of the home stay tourism sector.
Amongst the points discussed was the need for the state government to standardize and streamline the guidelines for home stays since they were not in place at the moment.
“There have to be separate norms for home stays since it is a different product that we are selling tourists. There have to be licensing in place if you want to deliver a top product to the clients. Presently we do not have rules which will enable us to restrict entry of antisocial elements and also look into matters of death, etc, if something untoward were to happen here,” stated Sushil Tamang.
Giving an example he mentioned that hotels have form C/D for foreigners but there was no such provision in place for home stays which was an area the government should look into. It may be informed that a total of 1500 tourists visited Darap village this tourist season out of which 70 percent were foreign and high-end tourists.
While stating that now home-stay service providers should change their mindset of waiting for the government to “spoon-feed” this sector he stressed that it was now the responsibility of the stakeholders to give back to the state. Here, he added that the support of the state government was valued but more grooming on these areas was needed for the operators.
Similarly, SHRA president, Bhanu P Rasaily during the interactive session spoke on the international recognition Darap had received in the past few years and commented that it was the dedication of the members that had made the same possible.

During their two-day visit, the entrepreneurs were taken to the Mayfair Spa, the casino and its restaurant where they were given an overview of how a top-end hotel functions.