Tura, Mar 8: The concept of alternative accommodation has gained immense popularity with homestays mushrooming across different parts of Garo Hills. Five years down the line, the small town of Tura had just one or two homestays, but today, not only Tura, but towns like Baghmara, Williamnagar, Resubelpara and Ampati has homestays and service apartments.

Thanks to large scale promotion of homestay scheme by Meghalaya Tourism, which has helped interested beneficiaries to avail the scheme and setup homestays. The effort of Meghalaya Tourism is commendable, as the department is taking all necessary steps to ensure that homestays become tourist friendly and provide services that gives visitors that best of experiences.

With the sole objective to create awareness and knowledge transfer, the Meghalaya Tourism, along with other stakeholders like DCIC, Meghalaya State Skills Development Society and MTIME Meghalaya and Airbnb today held the first Homestay Expo at District Auditorium in Tura.

The expo saw participation of homestay, resort and hotel owners from across Garo Hills. Through the expo, the interested beneficiaries were given first-hand information on procedure for availing homestay scheme, and other formalities for repayment of loans..

Officials gave presentation on Meghalaya Tourist Information and Management Engagement, MTIME App, which has been designed for booking of accommodation and other tourism related services. Government empanelled firms also gave detailed presentation on design layout for construction of homestays.

Talking to Hub News, Lionel Suchiang from Design and Development Firm, said, “We have come here to guide the beneficiaries and help them understand how to utilise the money effectively. Previously, the beneficiaries didn’t know how to utilize and design rooms. In the future, beneficiaries will be connected with these firms empanelled by the government, and we will conduct site visits to ensure that the quality of work is executed.”

The Expo also saw people who were willing to invest or obtain the homestay loan. The scheme of the government offers upto 70 percent subsidy.

Speaking to Hub News, Dharmen G Momin, owner of Dopatchi Homestay said, “I am very satisfied with the information. I was not aware about this MTIME App, earlier we used to take photos, scan documents of the tourist and submitted in Police station. Now by using this App we can upload it and it is connected to the Police station, so it has become hassle free”.

Rishin Chakraborty of MTIME Meghalaya said that the App has been developed for Meghalaya Tourism and through this App it enabled the digitization of the workflow for the Department, service providers and tourists.

The App has three key features:

1. The department can track footfall in the state; analytics can be done through this app.

2. Police are integrated into the app. Property owners can upload the data, and police can access it.

3. The listing of the properties can be done, and that information can be known by travellers, tourists entering the nation or the world.

The app is available for download in both android and iOS phones.