kochi homestays in fort kochi that were highly dependent on international tourists are struggling to survive they are now trying to woo domestic tourists by offering major discounts homestays was the most preferred by foreign tourists who love to experience kerala cuisine art and culture as international tourism is not picking up even this season we are a very worried group said kerala homestay and tourism society director m p sivadathanunlike the past two years this year there are positives that work in kochis favour and yet the city is unable to attract foreign tourists for one the popular kochimuziris biennale will be hosted in fort kochi this year secondly ernakulam despite recording high number of covid cases has won accolades for a few hospitalizations and deaths due to covid related complications unlike rest of the country where hoteliers and homestays have increased the room rent that has not happened here now with no international tourist booking homestays we are offering rooms on discounted rate to domestic tourists even in the peak tourist season even for last moment bookings too we are offering discounts this is to ensure that the rooms are not vacant and we are able to sustain ourselves said sivadathanhomestays are classified into three for government certification based on a set of predefined score criteria class a diamond house class b gold house and class c silver house and the classified homestays are exempted from commercial electricity and water charges but even with this homestay owners fear that if this trend continues for long then they may be forced to shut shopwe dont know how long we will be able to survive in this manner many are just able to meet the costs while others are unable to break even added sivadathantourism industry is hopeful that the situation may change in 2023 we expect more international tourist inflow by january 2023 said association of approved and classified hotels of kerala aachk president riaz ahmed