Quality service and sustainable tourism. These were the watchwords at the daylong training session to hone the skills of homestay owners in Sittong, an area in Darjeeling district around 50 kilometres from here, held on Monday.

The initiative was jointly taken up by the Calcutta regional office of the Union tourism ministry and the Eastern Himalaya Travel and Tour Operators’ Association (EHTTOA). The Experience Incredible Journey, a trust working for the welfare and promotion of the homestay facilities at Dairy Gaon in Sittong, also helped them by getting in touch with homestay owners and informing them about the event.

“The tourism ministry is focusing on the promotion of regional and rural tourism. At the same time, we want to promote pollution-free areas by encouraging the creation of plastic-free zones and sustainable tourism through such training programmes,” said Jyotirmoy Biswas,the assistant director of the Union tourism ministry, who is posted inCalcutta.

A homestay in the Darjeeling hills

In all, 50 homestay owners participated in the daylong training.

Sandhya Acharya, the president of the Sittong Eco-Travellers Society, said that around 150 homestays had come up in different locations of Sittong in recent years.

“Over 150 homestay owners will benefit from such training programmes,”she said.

Debasish Chakraborty, the general secretary of EHTTOA, said the training was planned to encourage the homestay owners to deliver quality service and work for sustainable tourism.

On the specifics of the training, he said: “Apanel of experts spokeat the training programme where participants were apprised of the basic tenets of hospitality. We want to ensure that people visiting Sittong get qualityservice. Trainees werealso told to interact with tourists and tell them that tourists should refrainfrom any activity that can pollute the environment.”