‘LetsHome’ generating income for locals in northern areas

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ISLAMABAD, Jul 31 (APP):Pakistan’s version of Bed and Breakfast (B&B) ‘LetsHome’, an online tourism service, was providing comfort to not only tourists but also generating source of income for local population of northern areas.

Founded by IBA student, Seema Alkarimi, LetsHome was an online service operating in the beautiful mountains of north of the country where they enable the general public to lease or rent their houses for a short period to the visiting national or international tourists.
Seema Alkarimi told APP that the idea behind this venture was to distribute the influx coming from tourism industry among local population.

“If a family has an emptied room or a house, they can register with us through our online portal and we connect them to tourists visiting that area and they can rent it out on reasonable charges”, she said.
This way guests get to experience the real culture and beauty of north by living with the locals in their homes and hosts get to earn their income in return, she added.

Seema explained that the main reason to build an online business was to break the monopoly of certain families who were ruling the hotel industry in northern areas and charging their own set prices for hotel rooms and resorts.

“We are operating in almost all major tourist destinations in north like Hunza, Gilgit-Baltistan, Sakurdu, Chitral and Kashmir. To cope with any difficulty and providing facilities to our customers, we have assigned area managers in each destination who are mostly locals and live on walking distance from our guests families”, she added.

Regarding the quality of services, she said LetsHome offered three categories in housing facilities; Economy, Business and Premium. They varied in facilities and prices just like air traveling.
Seema Alkarimi, who was an ambitious business student herself, said that their motive was to create a tourist service provider while working towards responsible tourism, creating social impact using eco-friendly resorts with family friendly environment.

Talking about their recent adventure, she said LetsHome was hosting an all-girl trip for 12 days in mountains of Hunza from Aug 30 to Sept 10. “ We will be visiting 4 villages and spend some quality time with local families, eating the food they eat, fishing, going for hikes and climbing, camping out on mountains, bonfires with local music and visiting the areas that are often compromised by local tourists agencies”, she added.

She said Hunza was one of the most beautiful and scenic places in Pakistan and boosting the economy for locals there will eventually help the tourism industry move forward.

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