The Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC), has extended its partnership with global home-sharing platform Airbnb, under which it will create 1,500 tourism entrepreneurs in the state.
"After signing an agreement for Tourism Entrepreneurship Accelerator Programme with Airbnb last year we already have 500 hosts enrolled on the community-driven hospitality company's platform generating regular income," Maharashtra Tourism Minister Jaykumar Rawal told reporters here.
"We are targeting to create 1,500 entrepreneurs in villages through the programme this year," he added.
Further, thorough this, the aim is to make every home under this programme a micro-information centre, where tourists can avail the best guidance from their hosts including sightseeing, best places to eat, best modes of transport among others related to the area.
In 2018-19, Tourism Entrepreneurship Accelerator Programme with Airbnb is focused in Sindhudurg, Palghar and Ratnagiri districts, Maharashtra Principal Secretary V K Gautam said.
"We are also planning to focus on Elephanta village in this programme this year. We aim to create a micro-entrepreneur in each village of these districts," he added.
Airbnb global head of policy and communications Chris Lehane said, Airbnb is committed to create 50,000 hospitality micro-entrepreneurs in India and the Accelerator Programme is a major step towards realising this.
"In the first year, we expanded to 500 hosts across the state. Now we are planning to expand this programme in a phased manner with focus on particular regions and ultimate across the state," he added.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)