Homestay becoming deserted

Almost all the homestays in Myagdi, which were opened due to rumours, lahailai and the lure of subsidy, are closed. Some homestays have a lot of domestic tourists, but some homestays are not able to welcome a single tourist.

After the paper homestays, which were opened as hubs of village tourism, were closed without welcoming guests, it has been seen that the 'homestay program' has become a means of feeding activists with grant funds rather than developing tourism. Rural tourism, which has slowed down after the Corona epidemic, has not yet woken up. Although tourists flock to the homestays that have been opened in the slums of the tourist trail area, the homestays promoted by the Division Forest Office under the Gandaki State Government are now anonymous. Apart from sleeping domestic guests, foreign tourists did not reach these homestays.

'Yesterday, when I went to the field in the village, I had to find an acquaintance and ask for a place to stay. After making a homestay, you don't have to look for relatives or acquaintances when you go to that village, you get accommodation after going to the homestay. But this is not the case in all villages," said Dilmaya Bitalu, president of the non-governmental organization Milan Myagdi. "When many homestay grants came, the board would be kept for a few days but it would not meet the standards. In Annapurna Rural Municipality 5 Swanta, 6 Khiwang, 7 Histan and 8 Nagi on the Galeshwar-Baskhark-Nagi-Mahere-Khopra road which was opened under the leadership of Acap, Medep and IHC, former villages operated one homestay each. In Paschim Dhawalagiri, Good Nevers assisted in the operation of a homestay in Nowra, Bagra area on the round Dhawalagiri trail. At least 50 homestays were run by the locals of different villages with the financial and technical assistance of various institutions and bodies. With the return of the donor, those homestays are anonymous. In the beginning, they kept the tourists sporadically, but they were closed because they could not make a living from it.

Although the government started registering homestays by creating a procedure, these homestays have not been able to do any tourism activities apart from receiving subsidies. Most of the homestays are not visited by both foreign and domestic tourists, except for the Melajatra and wedding guests from the neighboring villages. From the government level, the Division Forest Office under the Gandaki provincial government spent 1 crore 34 lakh 13 thousand 222 rupees to operate 10 homestays at the rate of 2 each in Dhawalagiri, Malika, Mangala, Raghuganga and Annapurna Rural Municipality apart from Beni Municipality in FY 075/76. . None of these homestays are currently in operation.

The division forest office said that 4 lakh 50 thousand was spent by the municipalities and 3.4 lakh 1 thousand by the community to bring these homestays into operation. No agency has invested in homestays in the district since FY 075/76. There are homestays, there are no, I have not received any assistance. Maybe because the flow of tourists is low, the talk of the tourism sector has started to decrease," Malika Rural Municipality Chairman Beg Prasad Garbuja said, "I have heard that investments were made in homestays, but now they have disappeared. But in the new destinations where tourists have started, tourists are made to stay in houses for food, snacks and accommodation until the infrastructure of big investment is built. Guests who come to the village are treated to a taste of Raithane in a family atmosphere at the local's house.

The activities of homestays with the aim and goal of getting a taste of rural tourism have also slowed down. The concept of homestay is to provide hospitality to guests who come to visit the village by keeping them in their home, feeding them as they would like to cook and sleeping, arranging accommodation and charging a small fee. A homestay does not offer the same benefits as a hotel, but is only a source of additional income. Today, homestays have become a trend and a fashion. Homestay is understood as a hotel.

I added a floor to the roof of the narrow house and took out a comfortable room to accommodate guests. In the beginning, I also kept a few tourists. Since the tourists have stopped coming now, we have covered the bedspreads with tarp,' said Tek Bahadur Pun, a gharbas tourism businessman from Histan, 'Earlier there was a problem with his own family sleeping, neither all the families at home were welcomed at the same time nor tourists/guests.' It has been distributed at home.