www.nagahomestay.com to launch today
Kohima, June 30 (MExN): Nagaland is set to launch its first homestay website, Naga Homestay (www.nagahomestay.com) today.
“Its vision of creating a means for every Naga to generate a livelihood through sharing their cultural and natural heritage is ambitious in the light of recent reports that Nagaland has the highest unemployment rate in India,” stated a press release from Kevisato Sanyü, who built this website particularly tailored for Naga homestay entrepreneurs.
Naga Homestay is a Wander Nagaland company that is fully owned and operated by Nagas.
Kevisato maintained, “Tourism is a great opportunity to help solve Nagaland’s unemployment issue and homestay hosting provides an easy and simple way to earn extra cash from a spare room and meet people from all over the world.”
Usomia: Responding to local needs
“Naga Homestay is a return to our traditional concept of Usomia. Centuries ago we developed a unique system where every Naga family would have a host family in another village. We called this homestay host family Usomia. In today’s world this same concept of Usomia homestay host family can create employment and help villagers use their homes to generate income,” said Visier Sanyü, President of the Overseas Naga Association and Initiator of Healing Garden.
According to Naga Elder and prominent Peace Activist, Niketu Iralu, “Naga Homestay, created by young Nagas who care for the proper growth of their people, will connect our villages to the wider world. Both sides will benefit from it.”
Founder of Naga Homestay, Kevisato Sanyü, built this platform after noticing how Nagas were “being locked out of the tourism industry” due to the number of middlepersons as well as the lack of infrastructure that disabled Nagas from accessing online systems.
“Despite a growing tourism industry many locals are locked out of this homestay opportunity due to inaccessibility to customers and technical difficulties, so we came together to solve these issues,” he noted.
Kevisato set out to build a website that “solved the barrier local Nagas face that big international companies do not understand. The Naga Homestay website accepts local forms of ID, local bank accounts and does not issue one-time-passwords.”
Furthermore, the website will list homestays across multiple platforms such as Airbnb and Booking.com, connecting hosts to a global network of travellers looking for a place to stay while visiting Nagaland.
Partnership
In partnership with Entrepreneurs Associates (EA), the Naga Homestay team has set up a support network to enable every interested Naga person to list their homestay. They offer host trainings, toolkits and will even list and manage homestays for hosts who do not have access to a computer, informed the press release. Listing is completely free and Naga Homestay is currently offering Rs. 1,000 registration bonus for new hosts.
“Just because some people do not have access to a computer doesn’t mean they have to miss out,” said Shiroi Lily Shaiza, Corporate Manager at EA. “This is a great opportunity for our community,” she acknowledged.
“Many Nagas have only been looking at opportunities on the outside for too long. Naga Homestay brings opportunities to earn right to our doorstep. We must make the best use of it,” encouraged Neichüte Doulo, CEO of EA.
