Aimed at promoting the ‘The Incredible India Bed & Breakfast/ Home stay Establishments” scheme and identifying it as a niche segment set to grow across the country, the Union Ministry of Tourism organised a sensitisation seminar along with Dr Ambedkar Institute of Hotel Management here on Wednesday.
leading travel houses of Northern India participated in the seminar to discuss the significance of the said scheme.
Arun Srivastava, Regional Director, Union Ministry of Tourism, said, “The basic idea is to provide a clean and affordable place for foreigners and domestic tourists including an opportunity for foreign tourists to stay with an Indian family to experience Indian customs and traditions and relish authentic Indian cuisine.”
As per the scheme, the Ministry of Tourism will classify fully operational rooms of Bed & Breakfast/ Home Stay Facilities. These facilities will be categorised as silver and gold, to provide comfortable home stay facilities of standardised world-class services to the tourists, and to supplement the availability of accommodation in the Metros and tourist destinations.
The Regional Classification Committee will inspect and assess the Bed & Breakfast establishments, based on facilities and services offered. The establishments, once approved by the Ministry, will be duly publicised. A directory of all such approved establishments will also be prepared, so as to enable domestic as well as foreign tourists to live in a homely environment. In addition, efforts will be made to organise short-term training in hospitality trade, he said.
“Bed and Breakfast has the potential to be an integral part of a tourist’s visit to a place and also help to strengthen the cross-cultural ties by mingling of intercultural people” added Bharti Tyagi AIHM Principal. Notably, the UT Administration had scrapped the scheme in 2009. Since then, the Administration is making efforts to revive it in Chandigarh.
Before scrapping the scheme in 2009, nearly 25 res idents were registered under it to provide accommodation in their premises under charges fixed by the UT administration. Under the scheme, two categories of rooms — gold and silver — were available at the rates of Rs 900 and Rs 700 respectively.