Goa Tourism Minister talks about homestay policies, aligning with PM's vision of 'Viksit Bharat'

At the launch of the guide book Goa unseen, by Airbnb, in collaboration with the Goa Tourism Department, Khaunte said: “One of our initiatives, which we thought of, with our Prime Minister talking about Viksit Bharat, we built around the four pillars, we picked up two pillars, in terms of the tourism sector, largely. “

“One is the Yuva Shakti, second is the Mahila Shakti. From that Mahila Shakti, we thought of getting the whole idea of the homestay policies being stitched around,” he said.

“And the homestays policies are, today, empowering women, talking about tourism being inclusive. We are talking about homestays, which are in the rural area, where we are talking about tourism being inclusive, more in the rural sector, where we are able to build a new story. And as we started this, this is where Airbnb initially came in.”

He added: “They were the first to come in and collaborate. So, heartiest congratulations to you guys for having come with a think tank, thinking about a policy which every state makes. Unless we collaborate, complement each other, we cannot move ahead.”

He said: “It is always said that the government can be a facilitator, we cannot come into the line of business. So, we need to be there facilitating policies. But there needs to be somebody coming in that area of putting those SOPs right, ensuring the skilling, upskilling metrics is right, ensuring that they are marketed properly and we build up a new story.”