Introduction
Yearly reflection meetings play a critical role in strengthening community-based tourism by creating space for honest dialogue, shared learning, and forward planning. In July and August 2025, Community Homestay Network (CHN) conducted annual reflection meetings with Kirtipur Community Homestay and Nagarkot Community Homestay.
These meetings brought together community hosts and CHN representatives to review the past year’s activities, assess guest and partner feedback, address operational challenges, and align on strategies to improve visitor experience, community coordination, and long-term sustainability.
Across both destinations, discussions focused on the quality of experience, infrastructure standards, leadership roles, product refinement, pricing, marketing, and partnerships with external stakeholders.
Kirtipur Community Homestay: Reflection and Key Outcomes
The meeting held on 29 July 2025 in Kirtipur reviewed key agenda items, including Community Connect 2025, Momo Cooking experiences, Ranjana Lipi sessions, Import Promotion Desk group feedback, souvenir initiatives, municipal collaboration, review postcards, host storytelling, among others.
Community Connect 2025: Learning from Experience
The presence of the Mayor during Community Connect 2025 was a major morale booster for the community. Members appreciated the smooth internal coordination and the heritage storytelling session by Anuj Pradhan, Officer. However, some felt the itinerary was rushed, limiting deeper guest–community interaction.
From CHN’s perspective,standardizing of washrooms, bathrooms, and guest rooms are necessary.. Additionally, due to the physical distance between homestays, clearer coordination is required for luggage transfer logistics to ensure a smoother experience for travelers. The local market visit stood out as a strong experience and was identified as a feature worth replicating in other itineraries.
Ranjana Lipi and Aila: Need for Redesign
While guests enjoyed the teaching sessions, feedback suggested the classes leaned more toward a classroom-style format, with limited interaction and conversation with the facilitator. A refresh of the experience could make it more engaging, interactive, and collaborative, bringing in a livelier, hands-on approach that invites guests to participate and connect.
Guest Feedback, Souvenirs, and Municipal Engagement
During the meeting, CHN and the community engaged in a collaborative discussion, sharing feedback and ideas in a two-way exchange. CHN emphasized the importance of addressing dietary restrictions, guest safety, and refreshing walking routes, while the community explored ways to actively promote Kirtipur’s souvenirs. Community members also raised concerns about the lack of formal recognition and operational guidelines from Kirtipur Municipality, prompting CHN to clarify its role as a facilitator and commit to sharing the Dhankuta Homestay Operational Guidelines to support advocacy. Together, additional initiatives were identified, including introducing review postcards, collecting host stories for marketing, among others demonstrating a constructive and reciprocal dialogue throughout the session.
Conclusion
The yearly reflection meetings in Kirtipur reinforced the value of open dialogue, shared responsibility, and collaborative problem-solving in community-based tourism. In addition to Kirtipur our team also had community meet-ups in various places like Nagarkot, Patlekhet, Patan, Panauti Old Town, Bhada, Bardiya, Barauli, Bungamati, Rana Tharu, Meghauli and Dhankuta. All the visits and meetups to the communities demonstrated a strong commitment to improving hygiene, experience quality, communication, and ethical standards, while CHN reaffirmed its role as a bridge between communities, partners, and markets. These meetings reaffirmed the role of ownership from both sides, shared interests and commitment to upscale and refine the products. The agreed action points from these meetings will guide priorities for the coming year, strengthening both destinations as responsible, community-led tourism models.
