Homestays are a unique community-based tourism product spread across the Kangchenjunga Landscape (KL) which have improved livelihoods, fostered economic development, and strengthened socio-ecological resilience at the transboundary level. Our work in 2021, focused on regional and cross-border dialogues and interactions to share community-based homestay management experiences across the three KL countries – Bhutan, India, and Nepal.

Cross-border exchanges have shown the receptiveness of communities and governments to transboundary learning. Our district-level pilot intervention in Haa, Bhutan, which implements lessons learnt from Nepal, influenced the development of the tourism action plan in neighbouring Chhuka (also in Bhutan). The Chhuka Tourism Action Plan has, in turn, influenced the development of the Maipokhari Tourism Destination Plan in Nepal.

Amongst our partners, Community Homestay Network, Nepal supports homestay operators with bookings and guest distribution, a service that has proven extremely valuable for homestay operators. The extension of similar services at the landscape level will further our efforts to develop the KL into a transboundary destination.

Over the years, our pilots and scaling interventions have benefitted 107 homestays (70 in Bhutan, 18 in India, and 19 in Nepal), creating approximately 214 direct jobs. As extend the scope and scale of homestay development, we are focusing on clustering and packaging niche transboundary KL products – cultural as well as biological – to strengthen a shared KL identity.