Adventure & Wildlife Magazine - Vol 1|Issue 5-6| Nov 16 - Jan 17 Vol 1|Issue 5-6| Nov 16 - Jan 17 | Page 22

ADVENTURE & WILDLIFE
“Man-animal conflict is not just with
tigers but also with elephants. So we have
come up with elephant corridors, we have
got a lot of tiger reserves, we have got
leopard reserves, we have got the hornbill
reserves. So it isn’t limited to tiger alone.”
Like you said, there are lots of activities that go on that
do not come to our notice- anti social activities, illegal
activities, gambling, prostitution goes on. Luckily
no atrocities have happened. Once they happen, The
Department of Tourism is going to get blamed.
So I have given them a deadline of Nov 14. So by that
time you register with me. If you are not going to register
A&W: But it also says NOC is required by the police...
with me, I am going to shut you down. I am going to take
action. I am not asking you to be rated. If you are rated,
Priyank Kharge: Yeah, self certification is there. So as then well and good. I am going to promote you on my
soon as you upload it, you can start operating, that is billboards, on my website. For example: Coorg is there,
subject to approval by the local authority. But if the self my property is there, also I’ll put your property. Under
certification is seen as a malicious one or a malified one Home-stays of coorg, I’ll promote you, Don’t worry
then we are going to take action. Like I said we have done about that. But if you are not registered with me, I will
two things one, registration I have made it compulsory, deem you illegal.
cheap and affordable, with self certification, which was
not there prior and the second thing is the ratings. So like A&W: In fact, last week we went to Muthodi, a
you pointed out, you might be doing good. How does a beautiful property, it’s a house, deep in the jungle, and it
tourist get to know you. It depends on how you do your is not a luxury one, but extraordinary experience we had.
search engine optimization online or you have to spend.. We were about 20 of us, we went for trekking. So things
like that. For them it becomes easy, if officers from your
A&W: And people look at trip advisor. So now that is department could identify these people and ensure that
the barometer.
they are rated.
Priyank Kharge: Yes trip advisor and you don’t even have Priyank Kharge: So it works two ways; one, we spoke
enough money to advertise on big magazines, big news about the home-stay part of it, where we are talking
papers…
about small home-stays. What about resorts who are
running on home-stay licenses. There are lot of people,
A&W: Definitely not, It isnt such a big paying thing.
they might have only 10 lodges. They claim to be home-
stays, but they are giving service, they have a villa, they
Priyank Kharge: Absolutely, So what I have told have a po-die, how do you say that it’s a home-stay. So
them is before the ratings were compulsory and there is a flip side to it which nobody looks at. So what
15,000 was minimum with no ceiling limit. You could happens is that it’s a revenue loss for me. And its not
charge 35,000-40,000 whatever the rating agency cheap. You are charging Rs.20,000/villa which is as good
wanted. What I have done is that I have got down as The Taj in coorg.
the minimum limit to Rs.10,000 and the ceiling limit is
Rs.25,000. You cannot charge more than Rs.25, 000 for
the rating.
What happens if you do the rating? The rating is going
to tell you whether you are 1 star, 2 star, 3 star, 4 star,
or 5 star depending on the facilities, your hospitality, the
quality of food you serve, whether you have
CCTV camera, whether you have wifi, the hygiene
standards that you follow. So if you get rated, I will
promote you. The department of tourism will promote
you. How will I promote you? I will list you on my
website, which becomes the benchmark for all other
websites to take it from, because we are the valid, verified
authority as we are the government. So if I am endorsing
your home-stay, that means it is clean in all kind of ways.
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“If you get registered & rated the
Department of Tourism will promote you.
How will we promote you? we will list
you on our website, which becomes the
benchmark for all other websites to
take it from, because we are the valid,
verified authority as we are the
government. So if we are endorsing your
home-stay, that means it is clean in all
kind of ways.”
Vol 1|Issue 5-6|Nov 16 - Jan 17