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Homestays are an essential component of community-based ecotourism and rural tourism initiatives aimed at promoting sustainable tourism development.It envisages the sustainability principle contributing to the triple bottom line (TBL) framework for increasing tourism benefits to the local community towards poverty alleviation and conservation efforts.Several studies have focused on homestays as a sustainable product of ecotourism and rural tourism development.The purpose of the study is to investigate the issues and challenges of homestays in the Sikkim and Darjeeling hills and their contribution to sustainable tourism development.The study was conducted in selected towns and villages using mixed research methods for data collection and analysis.Percentage and thematic analysis were used in analyzing data.According to the study's findings, homestays face issues and challenges on TBL dimensions of sustainability such as a lack of financial assistance, marketing and promotion, limited local employment, sustainability training, education, and capacity building, cross-cultural conflicts, land degradation, green certification, and inefficient solid waste management, that have hindered their contribution to sustainable tourism development in the region.
Bhutia et al. (2022) studied this question.