Bored of Work From Home, Uttarakhand govt offers option of 'work-cation'

Dehradun: If the yawning Work-from-Home regime has bored you to tears during the Covid-19 lockdown and your heart is now longing for staying in picturesque hills, so here is an irresistible option of 'work-cation' which can get you the best of both worlds in Uttarakhand. Explaining the new concept, Uttarakhand tourism secretary Dilip Jwalkar told the Millennium Post that the idea is to mix vacation with work for professionals from across the country.

"The visitors can now plan long and short vacations in Uttarakhand and can work also during their stay, the home-stays and hotels offering round the clock facilities like internet and workstations," said the tourism secretary.

To woo tourists for adventure sports and river rafting, the state government has already issued fresh guidelines for tourists. Jawalkar went on to add that the relaxing of the conditions–like keeping of the mandatory Covid-19 negative report–has bolstered footfall in Uttarakhand.

"The concept gives out the much-needed escape for everyone and a great opportunity to take your work on a holiday break. We are flooded with the queries from scores of MNCs from across the country," said the tourism secretary.

The locations offered by the Uttarakhand tourism are various resorts, hotels and homestay in Lansdowne, Jim Corbett, Kausani, Mussoorie, Nainital, Dehradun, and Almora, and several other places both in Kumaon and Garhwal.

Director, Uttarakhand Tourism Development Board, Prashant Arya said that in the workcation packages all the places have a range of well-sanitised hotels, resorts and homestays, enhanced with all required facilities, medical facilities, room service, healthy food, and much more.

Hospitality expert and hotelier, Kanti Kumar Ubhan, said, "Innovative ideas for boosting tourism are the need of the hour in the post Covid-19 scenario, globally. In Uttarakhand, the "workcation" as the concept, has potential to do wonders because people are tired of WFH during the lockdown and want to go out on vacation and can do their work also."

Ubhan also added that Uttarakhand has scores of week-end tourism destinations that are well connected with Delhi-NCR, Punjab, Haryana which are hub of the blue-chip corporates of the northern India. "State government must also play a role in forging strategic tie-ups between the blue-chip corporates and hospitality industry to boost the tourism industry in Uttarakhand."