Homestay Operators Research Articles

Investigating the Impacts of Homestay Tourism on a Local Community: Homestay Operators' Perspectives in Anantnag District

Investigating the Impacts of Homestay Tourism on a Local Community: Homestay Operators' Perspectives in Anantnag District

Socio-Economic Impact of Homestay: A case study of Tharu Homestay Patalganga, Birendranagar 3, Surkhet

Homestay tourism has been emerging as a form of sustainable tourism in many rural areas as a community development program in Nepal. The entire activities from the particular location have been integrated as a major component of rural tourism in homestay programs.To examine the socio-economic status of homestay owner. This study having the objective to explore the cultural practices of Tharu community, examine the socio-economic status of homestay owner describe the demographic pattern of the study area. Tharu community from Patalganga has been operating homestay programs where guests are offered only basic facilities i.e. normal bed just as the host sleep in their own bed, local food as host normally eat, and unique traditional hospitality with different cultural and natural beauties of particular area. Local cultural activities, traditional lifestyle of host, local tests can be experienced by guests taking part in a homestay program.Tharu people are rich in culture, have their own language, custom, and culture. This Patalganga community homestay perform the following cultural dance to entertainment the tourists like circle dance, stick dance and sakhiyadance. There are some challenges for doing home stay business in Patalganga village. The qualitative characteristics of social capitals such as road, transportation, energy, communication, security, are not supportive to the homestay. Homestay in Patalganga has created an alternative source of income for the concern family of the homestay operators. However, the families face the internal and external problems in the entire homestay. Homestay is a very effective tourism tool for economic sustainability, and natural sustainability of rural community by preserving the local tradition and culture.

Malaysian homestay experience programme: A qualitative investigation on operator's crisis management practices and resiliency strategies

Understanding the specific crisis management practices and resilience strategies homestay operators adopt during a crisis is critical. Currently, it is an area that remains under-researched despite the growing importance of resilience in community-based tourism operations. As such, this study investigates the crisis management practices and strategies for resiliency that homestay operators adopt during a health crisis. This qualitative study has been conducted via semi-structured interviews among ten prominent homestay operators in Malaysia. The thematic data analysis using an inductive approach was employed to ensure the transferability of the findings. The study found that marketing initiatives, pandemic prevention measures, maintenance practices, and government assistance were the best crisis management practices homestay operators could implement during the pandemic phase. Homestay operators have adopted four resilience strategies to survive after the pandemic: for other creative business opportunities, government assistance, use of technology innovation, togetherness in mitigating the pandemic, and industry engagement and collaboration. The results provide comprehensive strategies to the policymakers and industry stakeholders to strengthen homestay businesses in the future. Such understanding enables government efforts to maintain CBT sustainability, which is in line with the National Tourism Policy (2020–2030) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 1 (No Poverty), 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth) and 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities). The results are also expected to assist homestay operators in re-strategizing and striving toward recovery and resiliency after the crisis.

Homestay Operators' Experiences in Initiating and Developing Homestay Enterprises

Community homestay development is one of the strategies to culture-based accommodation, mostly in the rural and remote settlements in Nepal. Homestay tourism has been in practice for more than two decades, and it is rapidly spreading in many parts of the country. This article attempts to bring the views and experiences of community homestay operators regarding their understanding, awareness, perceived benefits, and homestay initiation and development practices from Mahabharat Hills of Bagmati Province. Ethnographic field observations and 'bhalakusari' (in-depth talk) were the dominant methods applied during the data collection process. The findings suggest that due to multiple types of perceived as well as experienced benefits from community homestay tourism, locals have enthusiastically learned and adopted homestay enterprising, in which local-level institutional facilitation and support activities have become main motivators in the processes. In such areas, gradual increase in external facilitation, exposure and capacity development endeavors, increasing tourist arrivals, and wide ranges of direct and indirect economic, socio-cultural, and environmental benefits are visible. All these factors have encouraged the locals to engage and expand community homestay development initiatives in their areas. Despite multiple positive facets of homestay tourism, there exist some challenges too. The article also suggests some policy and practice-level implications.

Variables Affecting Tourist Satisfaction at Tapeshwari Buffer Zone Community Homestay in Belaka Municipality

Tourist satisfaction is very important for local community to operate the homestay. This research paper focuses on investigating factors influencing tourist satisfaction in homestays. Its objective is to analyze these variables, understand the types of tourists choosing homestays, and assess the local community's commitment to ensuring tourist satisfaction. This article focuses on Belha village of Belaka Municipality, Udayapur. The research design incorporates both qualitative and quantitative methods, aiming for a comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon through various theories and data collection approaches: preliminary interviews, telephonic interviews, structural interviews, Google surveys etc. have been used. The data collected from 82 participants indicates that Tangibles, Environment, Nutriments and Commitment are the significantly strong predictor of tourist satisfaction and this study further shows that commitment of the homestay operator is much stronger predictor of tourist satisfaction. This study explored the TENC Tangibles, Environment, Nutriments and Commitment) model with 25 measurement items to gauge the satisfaction of tourists staying in the homestay. This shows that Tangibles, Environment, Nutriments and Commitment (TENC) in a homestay lead towards the tourist satisfaction. The homestay should focus on exploring their culture and traditions, updating the tangible facilities and providing trainings to the homestay operators for the better service.

Homestay drives community's socio-economic development and sustainability; a case study of Skardu, Gilgit-Baltistan

Northern Pakistan is one of the most visiting places by both domestic and foreign visitors. This visitation phenomenon encourages residents to commercialize their residences portion a partial sharing into homestays. The northern area tourists have the privilege to experience homestay operations due to a shortage of lodging demand-supply gaps. A homestay is an idea of accommodation operation in which a visitor pays a charge to stay with a host family and engage with the native population. GB in general and Skardu in particular, benefited from the homestay due to national and international tourist flow. Homestay in Pakistan is not standardized or even not regularized. However, there are still many newcomers in the homestay business while owners do not understand business requirements, and the majority of them are not get training. Social media and online booking is popular channels for selling products. This study includes an assessment of community perceptions of how much the Homestay program influences the community in Skardu city, and even a discussion about the issues that Homestay operators and the community face. A cross-sectional research design with both quantitative and qualitative statistics (QUAN-QUAL Techniques) was used to examine the data. The data on a semi-structured questionnaire was collected from 30 homestay operators in the city. This research highlighted numerous characteristics of homestay growth, issues, and prospects.

When a villager is a rural homestay operator: role expectation research using the machine learning model?

ABSTRACT With the growing development of the Chinese rural tourism industry, villagers are gradually becoming involved in tourism, and the role of rural inhabitants has shifted. However, understanding tourists’ expectations of rural tourism operators remains challenging. This paper uses machine learning techniques such as LDA and SnowNLP to analyse online review data from 115 rural homestays in Hainan Province. Five topics of role expectations are identified, which can be grouped into quality expectations, image expectations, obligation expectations and attached expectations. Corresponding types of content are then mapped onto a convertible and dynamic model of residents’ role expectations, based on the concepts of ascribed status and achieved status, to discover the mechanism of role transformation of rural homestay operators. It is worth emphasising that residents’ roles are not singular in the particular spatial context of rural tourism operations. Image expectations within the achieved status can transfer from the ascribed status, while the gap between quality expectations and reality implies rural residents’ immaturity as operators. This study holds significant implications for the management and practice of rural tourism.

Financial Literacy Planning for Homestay Management Activities in Coastal Tourism Areas

This research aims to analyze the influence of financial literacy on the intention to improve performance and sustainability of homestay operators in Pinrang Regency. Using the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), the study explores how financial literacy affects attitudes toward behavior, subjective norms, perceived behavior control, and their impact on the operators' intention to enhance performance and sustainability. Results show that financial literacy significantly influences attitudes toward behavior, perceived behavior control, and subjective norms of homestay operators. The intention to improve performance and sustainability is positively influenced by attitudes and perceived behavior control, while subjective norms have no significant impact. These findings highlight the crucial role of financial literacy in supporting homestay performance and sustainability in Pinrang Regency, emphasizing the need for continued support from relevant stakeholders.

Community education as a lifelong learning to support sustainable tourism

A community-based tourism (CBT) approach has become an integral part of rural and sustainable tourism development strategies. However, CBT has some constraints on being sustainable due to some internal weaknesses and external concerns, including poor marketing competencies. As a top-down government initiative, Malaysian CBT homestay is blessed with numerous assistance to ensure its survival which in the other hand, creates over-reliance toward other parties. This lack of marketing expertise challenges homestay sustainability. This study examines the importance of community education in marketing activities as a lifelong learning towards sustainable tourism in Malaysia. Qualitative case study is employed to gain an extensive and in-depth explanation on homestay’s marketing implementation and its issues. A semi-structured interview was taken to 9 homestay operators. This study employs a thematic data analysis to investigate the interview results. Research findings show that in majority, the community enjoys the comfort zone provided by government and travel agents, hence encourage the resistance for change. However, a few homestay demonstrates positive respond to involve lifelong learning through community education to support sustainable tourism. More importantly, partnership between various key stakeholders are the utmost important to ensure policy planning and to improve community education quality.

How Are Rural Homestays Achieving Sustainable Development in the Post-COVID-19 Period: Value Co-Creation by Operators, Tourists, and Government

The mental fatigue of rural homestay operators is of great significance to their performance as well as the sustainability of the rural tourism industry. Mental fatigue is a state of mind caused by consistently demanding cognitive activities. The mental health of rural homestay operators has been severely hit during the COVID-19, and they are in urgent need of finding a path to recovery. Based on value co-creation theory, this paper explores how rural homestay operators’ mental fatigue affects their performance under the moderating effects of government support and tourists’ participation. We conducted a questionnaire survey in the 19 rural tourist destinations of Nanjing, China, and collected a total of 201 questionnaires from the homestay operators. The results reveal that the operators’ mental fatigue has a negative effect on the performance of rural homestays. What’s more, tourists’ participation could moderate the relationship between operators’ mental fatigue and their performance. Although the moderating effects of government support are not significant, they can influence operators’ performance directly and indirectly. Through the value co-creation of operators, tourists, and government with the aim of improving the performance value of the rural homestay co-creation process, the operators’ mental fatigue could be alleviated and their performance restored. These findings can help us explore the recovery mechanism of rural homestays and promote the sustainable development of rural tourism in the post-COVID-19 period.

Assessing the sustainability of the homestay industry for the East Coast of Malaysia using the Delphi approach

Homestay ecotourism in Malaysia has been extensively examined in terms of its concepts, approaches, activities, and community engagement. However, a comprehensive assessment of the sustainability factors pertaining to host families remains a critical area awaiting exploration. This is paramount for ensuring the long-term viability of homestays and fostering economic benefits within rural communities. The present study seeks to establish direct subjective measurements for evaluating the interplay between local communities, tourism, and resources in safeguarding sustainable homestays. Utilizing the Delphi approach, this research conducted interviews with 51 experts who were actively involved in six homestays located on the East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia. The objective was to identify key evaluation indicators pertinent to the homestay industry. The findings underscored the pivotal roles played by community resources and tourism in the sustainability of homestays. Additionally, environmental, economic, and social factors emerged as crucial components for maintaining the industry's sustainability. This innovative assessment methodology offers a valuable instrument for enhancing the sustainability of the homestay sector, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. By embracing this approach, homestay operators can fortify their sustainable management practices and prepare themselves for future pandemics. This study represents a significant contribution to the field of homestay ecotourism, emphasizing the imperative for continued research in this dynamic domain.

COVID-19 PANDEMIC: REVISIT THE CHALLENGES AND SUSTAINABILITY OF HOMESTAYS IN MALAYSIA

The Malaysian Ministry of Arts, Tourism and Culture (MOTAC) has been promoting homestay programs among the local community as a means to enhance quality of life and facilitate sustainable development. The community's distinct characteristics and cultural significance have effectively attracted the tourism sector and aligned with the 'Truly Asia' Campaign. However, the Covid-19 pandemic has had a global impact, leading countries to implement four phases of Movement Control Orders (MCOs). The objective of this study is to examine the difficulties encountered by homestay operators in maintaining the viability of their businesses in light of the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as to propose strategies aimed at securing the long-term sustainability of Malaysia's homestay programs. This qualitative study investigates the impact of the Covid-19 outbreak on homestay operators, focusing on their struggles with limited support and income, increased operational costs, and the toll on mental health. The study reveals key challenges based on data from in-depth interviews conducted with operators in states with high Covid-19 cases. The respondents provided insights into various strategies employed to ensure the long-term viability of Malaysia's homestay programs, including diversification, business restructuring, government support, and digital marketing. This research contributes to the government's efforts to promote homestay programs in the tourism industry, shedding light on the industry's resilience during challenging times.

DEVELOPING A MUSLIM FRIENDLY DESTINATION CRITERIA FOR HOMESTAY PROGRAMME: A CONCEPTUAL STUDY

Muslim-friendly destination has become popular tourist attractions, providing visitors with the opportunity to explore the unique aspects of Islam. This growing interest presents an opportunity for industry players to shift the trend of tourism offerings. In this regard, homestay programme has the potential to become Muslim-friendly destinations for tourists. However, it is essential to determine to what extent Shariah-compliant practices should guide homestay operators in providing Muslim-friendly destinations. Hence, the objective of this study is to investigate the criteria that need to be considered to ensure Shariah compliance. Qualitative research techniques, such as in-depth interviews with coordinators of selected homestay programmes will be used to achieve the study objective. The results of this interview will be analysed using thematic analysis techniques. The outcome of this study will serve as a benchmark for industry stakeholders in developing strategies for homestay programme development. Moreover, the criteria developed in this research will offer a shariah-compliant guide for promoting Muslim-friendly destinations in Malaysia. This is in line with the National Tourism Policy’s (DPN 2020-2030) objectives of achieving competitiveness, sustainability, inclusivity, and global recognition as a Muslim-friendly destination.

Exploring Homestay Tourism in Nepal: Unveiling Opportunities and Challenges

Homestay tourism is a form of accommodation that allows tourists to stay with local families, immersing themselves in the country's rich culture, traditions, and hospitality. This paper explores the historical roots of homestays, originating from ancient customs of hospitality in various civilizations. The objective is to investigate the role of homestays in promoting rural tourism, supporting local economies, and providing authentic travel experiences. Homestay tourism offers a family-like environment for tourists, serving as an alternative to building hotels in remote areas, which contributes to conserving local forests and reducing costs. The development of rural tourism has positively impacted the income and living standards of local communities, offering employment opportunities, and enhancing cultural preservation. However, challenges persist, such as insufficient infrastructure development, unclear policies, limited use of local products, and inadequate training for homestay operators. Addressing these challenges systematically is essential for the future success of homestay tourism in Nepal. By investing in infrastructure, formulating clear policies, promoting the use of local products, and providing training, homestay tourism can continue to thrive, offering travelers an authentic experience and benefiting local communities.

Sustainable practices, mindfulness, tranquility, and well-being: A mixed-method approach

The present study aims to understand how tourists perceive the sustainable practices adopted by hotels and rural homestays and how this impacts their well-being. The current research used a mixed-methods approach. A qualitative study explored preliminary information on the state of formal certification of prevalent sustainable practices adopted by rural homestays and hotels in India. At the same time, quantitative research used SPSS and AMOS to analyze data collected from 850 tourists. Results indicate a positive association between sustainable practices and tranquility and between tranquility and well-being. This positive association is positively moderated by mindfulness. The findings advance the existing scope of the Self-Determination Theory by applying this theory to the study of sustainable practices, tranquility, and tourists’ well-being. The findings also have implications for academicians, hotels & rural homestay operators.

CHALLENGES IN IMPLEMENTATION OF COMMUNITY-BASED-TOURISM AND HOMESTAY POST-COVID-19 MOVEMENT CONTROL ORDER (MCO) AT KUNDASANG, SABAH

This article discusses the challenges in implementing the community-based tourism and homestay post covid-19 movement control order (MCO) at Kundasang, Sabah. The spread of the Covid-19 virus has had a significant impact on the community and, at the same time, on tourism activities. The implementation of the MCO, announced by the Prime Minister of Malaysia on March 18, 2020, has led all sectors, including the tourism sector, to stop operating temporarily to curb the virus from continuing to be prevalent among the community. On June 10, 2020, the government implemented the Recovery Movement Control Order (RMCO), allowing all sectors to operate again. However, there is a question of what challenges the tourists face in implementing the post-covid-19 recovery strategy and plan in Kundasang. The primary approach to this study is qualitative, based on primary and secondary data sources. The preliminary data is used through in-depth interviews while in the field. Secondary data is from journal articles, academic reference books and newspaper news widely used in this writing. The results of this study found that there were challenges facing the community, especially homestay operators, where the challenges they faced were different in implementing the post-covid-19 tourism recovery strategy in Kundasang, Sabah.

Enhancing Brand Equity Through Sustainable Tourism Marketing: A Study on Home-Stays in Malaysia

This study examined the antecedent and consequent relationship between sustainable tourism, marketing, and brand equity in the Malaysian rural community-based homestays (RCBHs) perspective. A self-administered questionnaire method was employed to collect data. Homestay operators from three Malaysian states, namely Kuala Lumpur/Selangor, Pahang, and Pulau Pinang participated in the study. In order to test research hypotheses, a structural equation modelling approach was used. The findings of the study suggested that the antecedent (sustainable tourism marketing), the consequent (brand equity), and moderator (political support by local authorities) have a significant relationship. Additionally, it was found that sustainable tourism marketing (STM) promotes rural community-based tourism. As a branding tool for sustainable rural community-based tourism. This study provides a unique contribution to the tourism body of knowledge by introducing political support by local authorities (PLA) as a moderator in STM and brand equity relationship. RCBHs can employ tailor-made promotion policies for the development of homestay business brands; likewise, policymakers can apply undifferentiated promotion policies for the holistic expansion of sustainable homestay market.

JtetTraining Urgency to Bridge the Digital Divide for Social Media Marketing Awareness and Adoption: Case of CBT Rural Homestay Operators Malaysia

Despite the fact that using social media for arranging trips is becoming increasingly important, community-based tourism (CBT)ofMalaysianrural homestay operators still heavily rely on traditional marketing platforms and third parties’ assistance to gain tourist attraction. Previous studies found a lack of awareness constraining social media marketing adoption in small enterprises. Hence, thisstudy aimsatexploringthe awareness of homestay operators regarding the use of social media as a marketing toolin CBT of rural homestay operators in Malaysia. A survey study was doneby using a semi-structured interview involvingnine respondents from nine homestays across Johor, Malaysia. The data wereanalysed using thematic analysis. The findings show that the community still has low awareness ofthe digital divide as well asthe unavailability of relevant human resources and technical expertise. It also indicated that the homestays’ operatorsstilluse Malay rather than English on their social media promotion and interaction, which restricts their chancesto access global markets.It is critical for operators of homestays to improve their competencies to maintain their businesses and increase their level of market competitiveness.Therefore, this study constitutes an essential call for stakeholders’ attention to enhance CBT rural homestay operators’ awareness through effective training. Accordingly, it closes the digital gaps that challenge social media marketing awareness and hence encourages technology adoption in the community.

The Functional Evolution of Rural Homestays of the Hometown Entrepreneurship Type: From Accommodation Space to Tourism Experience Space—Take Guizhou Province in China as an Example

The article adopts the "grounded theory" of qualitative research method, and selects rural homestay operators in Zunyi and Danzhai, Guizhou as the interviewees to investigate their business management philosophy and management behavior as the core elements. Based on the data obtained, three data processing steps, open coding, axial coding, and selective coding, were used to refine key propositions, so as to construct a functional evolution model of rural homestays of the hometown entrepreneurship type. The conclusions show that the main functions of the hometown entrepreneurial rural homestays have a tendency to evolve from tourist accommodation space to tourism experience space, and most operators have perceived this change and made business response behaviors that can adapt to its evolution. In order to adapt to the upgrading of tourists' consumption in rural homestays, the functions of hometown entrepreneurial rural homestays should be continuously expanded through management. Therefore, the article proposes corresponding management countermeasures and suggestions from both the government and operators for the evolution of the functions of hometown entrepreneurial rural homestays.

An Integrated Approach with CLFPR-Based ANP and Fuzzy TOPSIS for Evaluating Business Performance of Rural Homestays: Study from China

Given the high importance of the performance of rural homestays to the local economy, this study aims to fill the gap in homestay performance research and make rural homestays more competitive and sustainable after the coronavirus disease epidemic (COVID-19). Integrating a consistent linguistic fuzzy preference relations-based analytic network process (CLFPR-based ANP) and a fuzzy technique for order performance by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS), this study constructs a comprehensive evaluation model of the performance of rural homestays and empirically analyzes homestay performance in Zhejiang. The results show the following: (1) Among the criteria’s weights by CLFPR-based ANP, homestay operation and management, service quality, and homestay geist and community co-prosperity should be given much more attention; the importance of factors regarding the environment and building of rural homestays is gradually weakening. (2) In light of ranking alternatives based on performance evaluation by fuzzy TOPSIS, the homestay with the optimal performance has been found, which practitioners can use as a benchmark. Therefore, the priorities of these criteria further deepen the understanding of the performance of rural homestays and underline the development direction for practitioners. Simultaneously, in terms of feasibility and reliability, the integrated approach comprises a beneficial attempt and becomes an effective evaluation tool for practitioners to improve effectiveness.