THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: As the government prepares to present the state budget – its last before the assembly elections – on Thursday, a key initiative announced in the previous edition is yet to see meaningful progress on the ground.
Touted as an innovative tourism and housing convergence initiative, K-Homes was envisioned as a scheme to convert unoccupied houses across Kerala, particularly those owned by NRIs, into certified holiday homes for tourists. The project aimed to create basic tourism infrastructure by maximising the utility of thousands of vacant residential buildings, especially around major destinations.
Rough estimates by the government suggest Kerala has around 10-15 lakh unoccupied or vacant houses. The state government had earmarked `5 crore for the project, and unoccupied houses within a 10-km radius of key tourist centres such as Fort Kochi, Kumarakom, Kovalam and Munnar were identified for phase I.
A tourism official said the scheme is still in the preparatory stage. “We need a comprehensive set of guidelines for launching the scheme. The process is still under way,” the official told TNIE. Officials said domestic tourist footfall is increasing with each passing year, and K-Homes would help add more affordable accommodation units for them.
A committee was constituted to draw up guidelines and build a safe platform for property owners and registered tourism operators to connect. That was it.
Former tourism deputy director Prasanth Vasudev said K-Homes is one of the department’s many non-starters in recent years. The government, he said, announced the project at a time when the homestay and service villa segment are struggling to stay afloat.
“The government turned a blind eye towards the homestay and service villa industry by not offering any marketing support. There is no difference between service villa and K-Homes conceptually.
The government can rebrand service villas into K-Homes and offer free marketing. Also, the department has failed to come out with even the guidelines, even after a year,” Prasanth said.
He said the government should support existing stakeholders instead of going for such initiatives that propose conversion of homes owned by NRIs residing in the US and the UK.