A homestay in Huzhou, East China's Zhejiang province. [Photo/WeChat account: huzhoufabu]

The application made by Huzhou's Deqing county to make homestay housekeeper a new vocation in the nation was recently approved by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.

A homestay housekeeper refers to a person who offers customized services related to lodging, catering and tourism guidance.

The homestay industry in Huzhou has undergone remarkable development in recent years. As of the end of May, the city was home to 3,155 homestays. Last year, the city's homestays received about 24.3 million tourists and generated 7.08 billion yuan ($1.09 billion) in revenue, official statistics show.

In addition, the city has unveiled a string of measures to facilitate standardization in the homestay industry.

Among these measures are the introduction of China's first county-level grading system for rural homestay services and the formulation of the nation's first evaluation standards for the vocational skills of homestay housekeepers.

Deqing has also offered subsidies to attract young people from outside the county to come work as homestay housekeepers.

In Xiantan village, Moganshan town, more than 100 homestays have been opened to date. These businesses have in turn created nearly 1,000 jobs.

Making the homestay housekeeper a vocation will allow such workers to enjoy preferential policies such as a government allowance that is given out after obtaining a vocational skill level certification, according to Jiang Zhonghua, an official at the Huzhou Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, Film and Tourism.

The move will also improve the overall service quality of homestays across the nation and boost rural tourism, he added.