Home Stay Tourism in Nepal: A Case Study of Bandipur, Tanahun District

Abstract

Nepal is ranked as one of the top tourist destination in the world. Being a multicultural,multireligious, and multilingual country there are different traditions and cultures prevailingin Nepalese society. In order to promote such locally available traditionsand culture severalhomestays have been established in the country. Homestays have not only increased theincome of the people but also have promoted our culture and traditions.Out of the numeroushomestays in the country, Bandipur is ranked as one of thebest and popular destination fortourists. Bandipur is an old Newari village with wonderful natural beauty. The locales havemanaged to preserve their culture and tourist can enjoy the culture with typical Nepal food.The enchanting view of snow peaked mountains, sunrise and sunset, and trekking around thehills can make everyone fall in love with the village. Our main objective of this study is to know the present scenario of the homestay at Bandipur.We also wanted to know how the homestay have benefitted the locale. The present conditionof infrastructures and the planning for the development of the village in future is our primeconcern. We have interviewed the locales and also with the tourists to know the satisfactionthey have received from the homestay.This study is based on both primary and secondarydata. More specifically, it isbased on primary data, collected using questionnaire throughheld survey in thestudy area. Based on the study, it is found that Bandipur located in Tanahun District,southern corner ofGandaki Zone is a sleepy old Newari village. It was the main link on the ancient trading routebetween India and Tibet and according to legend was oncevery prosperous. It is also a placeof god-gifted natural assets, mountain andHimalayan scene, river basin, Wildlife, favorableclimate and others attractionswhich will be of great interest for the tourist. This place isfamous for both domestic and international tourism for its peculiar village environment in theview of its potential for the tourism development; the local community is seen to be moreinterested and aware on the development of this area jointly as tourist destination.It isdelighting to see more domestic tourists during the field visit, mostly for the purpose a villageenvironment. Every facilities of accommodation like home-stay, hotels and resort areavailable in Bandipur in cheap price. Villagers are aware and agree that overall impact oftourism is positive in their village.We found that Bandipur have higher potential to attracttourists if infrastructures are developed on time. It has been place of attraction for bothinternal and international tourists. It is also found that Bandipur development society youthclub and Aama samuha are working hard to develop basic infrastructural facilities. Bandipurhas enormous tourism products to attract tourism which shall be upgraded in the activeparticipant of all the local respondents, it will be better in the, form of community basedvillage tourism like Sirubari, Ghalegaunetc.