Ministers Sankar Ghosh and Purnima Chakraborty launch the homestay portal at a programme in Salt Lake
The tourism department will also release a formal homestay policy alongside a platform for booking tourism department tourist lodges in a few weeks’ time, the minister announced.
Ghosh said properties without formal certification and verification under the portal will be strictly prohibited from using the word “homestay” on their signage or advertisements. Kolkata: State tourism minister Shankar Ghosh on Thursday launched online homestay portal to create a govt-verified local hospitality data bank for tourists to avail of, keeping in mind the increasing inflow of both domestic and foreign travellers in the state.
Tourism department officials said the state recorded about 30 crore domestic travellers and around 40 lakh foreign visitors in 2025. There will be over 20,000 homestays in the state in the next 20 years, according to projections. The plan is to allow opening up of homestays in urban areas as well and to prepare a plan for Viksit Bharat 2047 as there will be a four-times rise in the number of tourists visiting the state,” said an official. “As of now, there are 5,479 homestays in the state. Out of them, 2,679 are registered,” said Ghosh. “We have 40 tourist lodges now, with more than 400 rooms. We have already started work to renovate 18 lodges. By this month, the process to revamp all 40 will start.
Ghosh added that a website will soon be launched where travellers will be able to book govt tourist lodges.
Soon, we will bring booking of tourist lodges and homestays to a single digital platform,” the minister said. “Bengal is now the 6th most visited state in the country, and has the second highest number of visitors from abroad after Maharashtra. If the number of tourists increases, the demand for rooms will also increase.