Ashutosh Bhattarai
People's Campus
Narayan Manandhar
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This innovation is a joint effort made by the local residents of Mustang district, Kagbeni Village Development Committee, and Eco Tour Nepal to promote rural tourism in Nepal by introducing the concept of home stay. Local villagers let tourists stay with them for a few nights in their houses. Villagers welcome the tourists as members of the family, sharing traditional foods to eat and traditional clothes to wear. In this way, the tourists experience the way of Nepali rural life.
The innovation at work is that instead of outsiders spoiling local culture, tourists are welcomed into local culture and help promote local culture as they adapt. The hosts cook traditional Nepali food, wear traditional dresses, and decorate their homes with local artifacts. The visitors learn about the traditional way of life in rural Nepal. The main idea is to make tourists a home to stay, away from home.
In addition to introducing the concept of home stay, the residents have also installed wind generated electricity in the village to provide light to their houses. This is very clean renewable energy.
Prior to the introduction of the home stay program in the Mustang district, there was no place for visiting tourists to stay. The area is critically underdeveloped and standard hotels and lodges are not available here. Prior to the home stay concept, tourists had to stay outdoors during the night in their own camps. Because of harsh weather conditions, it was extremely difficult for the tourists, therefore, travelers visiting Mustang district almost never returned.
Therefore, to help visiting tourists, as well as to promote rural tourism, a village community called "Kagbeni", with the participation of 7-8 houses, initiated the business of home stay. The project assisted tourists by providing a warm place to stay. and residents earned money for the accommodation. This helped to reduce hunger and poverty.
Owing to this project, lives of rural Nepali people are changing gradually. Now, almost half of Nepal has started this concept of home stay business; the only difference is that now people run home stay as a business economic activity.
The benefits of Home Away Home's business model include:
Tourists, who come to visit Nepal, choose to book their room in home stays rather than booking rooms in expensive hotels or camping in areas where no hotels exist.
The home stay business has increased the inflow of tourists in rural Nepal. This has helped to distribute tourist earnings among rural populace.
With a larger inflow of tourists to rural areas, villagers have also increased sales of their local products to the tourists, thus helping to expand other business activities.
The environmental benefits from this project include the use of wind electricity. The use of clean energy has replaced the use of kerosene for lighting. Sources indicate that in rural areas burning of fossil fuels for lighting and heating purpose greatly affect the health of women, as they have the responsibility of cooking.
Nepal is currently endeavouring to generate eco-friendly electricity through wind, water, and solar power. Local residents receive additional benefit from having employment opportunities generated by these eco-friendly projects.
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Sushil Prasad Pokharel, Resident
