Bachelor Thesis

Homework before homestay - The importance of host-training for sustainable

tourism development

Author: Rebecca Karlsson

Supervisor: Per Pettersson Löfquist

Examiner: Hans Wessblad

Date: 2017-01-09

Subject: Tourism studies

Level: Bachelor

Course code: 2TR42E

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Summary Bachelor Thesis, School of business administration, Linnaeus University,

Tourism studies, Course code 2TR42E, 2017-01-09.

Author: Rebecca Karlsson

Supervisor: Per Pettersson Löfquist

Title: Homestay – A tool for sustainable tourism development?

A fieldstudy of Bohol, Philippines

Background

When tourism is growing fast it is important to develop it in a sustainable way which

benefits the communities involved as much as possible. Homestay tourism can benefit

local communities such as mass tourism has been widely criticized for failing to do.

Homestay has shown to be successful as a tool for building sustainable tourism and

contributing to locals involved in other countries. The concept has given hosts an

opportunity to gain from their local resources. This gives the resources importance

thereby locals preserve them. Although, there is a lack of studies on how the homestay

concept can contribute to sustainable tourism development and how the concept is

implemented in the Philippines.

Purpose

The aim with the research is to explore impacts of the homestay concept in sustainable

tourism development through following perspectives: assess the social and economic

impacts of having a homestay, identify motivational factors behind local peoples'

decisions to put up a homestay, explore further ways of developing homestays in a

developing country with focus on the central part of The Philippines.

Method

The research is based on data collected during a 8 week fieldstudy in Bohol,

Philippines, in 2016. It is a study with a subjective approach where different perception

is collected through semi-structured in-depth interviews with homestay operators,

homestay organizations and tourism officers but as well as participant observations.

Resultat, conclusions

In the research, several challanges for implementing the homestay concept in a

sustainable way have been identified and given suggestions on. The biggest challenge

identified is that hosts do not have the skills and knowledge for the purpose of the

homestay concept. The study argue that this challenge could be overcome by host-

training to a large extent. This host-training should preferably be facilitated by the

government, which in the Philippines has internal challenges such as reversed hierarchy

and low commitment to overcome before being able to facilitate the homestays for a

more sustainable tourism development.

Key Words Homestay, sustainable tourism development, less developed countries, host, host-

training

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Thanks I would like to thank various people for making this thesis possible. First, I would not

have been aware of the homestay concept and would never been experienced the

greatness of the concept if it would not have been for my supervisor Per Pettersson

Löfquist who given me guidance in the subject of hospitality and issues in less

developed countries.

SIDA (Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency) is also of great

importance for making the fieldstudy possible.Getting the chance to do this fieldstudy

have enrichen the thesis itself and also my studies. I would like to display big gratitude

to SIDA for opportunity given to me and for preparing me for the fieldstudy through a

preparatory course with skilled lecturers.

I would also like to thank all the people who have shared their knowledge and

experience during the fieldstudy. Ruby Jane Alcantara, Anna Cleal, Shobel L. Ligalig,

Niel Gerard P. Rayes, Gina Peluchi Kapirig, Jaypee Orcullo, Marcus Leslie Suntay and

Camille R. Escudero for sharing their knowledge and given me inputs from a

perspective that I would not have been able to obtain otherwise. Staffan Gullander, who

has shown great interest in the research, has given me motivations, tips and

recommendations which I am very greatful for.

Last but not least, I would like to show greatfulness to all the Filipinos who has opened

up their homes for me. I hope to see you all soon and wish you the very best with your

homestay businesses.

I wish you an enriching reading and I hope that you will consider to experience the

culture through a homestay next time going abroad!

Rebecca Karlsson

Kalmar, 2017-01-09

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Innehåll

1 Introduction _________________________________________________________ 1 1.1 Homestay as a sustainable tourism development tool _____________________ 2 1.2 Research problem _________________________________________________ 4

2 The homestay experience ______________________________________________ 5 2.1 Planning ________________________________________________________ 5 2.2 Getting there _____________________________________________________ 6 2.3 Arriving ________________________________________________________ 7 2.4 Dining __________________________________________________________ 9 2.5 Entertaining guests _______________________________________________ 12

2.6 Paying the host __________________________________________________ 15 2.7 The entrepreneurial host ___________________________________________ 17

3 Homestay governance ________________________________________________ 20 3.1 The homestay organizations studied__________________________________ 20 3.2 Host-training through accreditation __________________________________ 21 3.3 Reversed heirarchy _______________________________________________ 21

3.4 Eco-tourism: Luxury of simplicity ___________________________________ 23 3.5 Sustainable tourism development in Bohol ____________________________ 24

4 Empirical conclusion _________________________________________________ 25 4.1 Challenge 1: Unsufficient income for hosts ____________________________ 25 4.2 Challenge 2: Uncertainty in hosting __________________________________ 26

4.3 Challenge 3: Ineffective governance _________________________________ 27

5 Theoretical analysis __________________________________________________ 29 5.1 Uncertainty in hosting: Negative economic ____________________________ 29 5.2 Uncertainty in hosting: Negative social impact _________________________ 30

5.3 Host-training ____________________________________________________ 33 5.4 Government role in developing sustainable homestay ____________________ 36

6 Conclusion _________________________________________________________ 40

References ___________________________________________________________ 41 Published resources _________________________________________________ 41 Verbal sources _____________________________________________________ 44 Unpublished resources _______________________________________________ 45

Appendices ___________________________________________________________ I Appendix A Methodology statements _____________________________________ I

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1 Introduction Can tourism contribute to social development and sufficient income? What impact does

tourism have on the cultural, social and economic lives in the countries visited? These

questions arise in connection with the fact that the tourism industry is the biggest

industry worldwide (Faure et al., 2014).

The Philippines is an archipelago composed of over 7000 islands. The country is known

for having a rich biodiversity with beaches, rainforests, diving spots together with a rich

historical and cultural heritage. It is estimated that these are the main tourist attractions

for the country. The Philippines is number six for tourism in ASEAN (Saddique, 2015).

Despite this, the tourism sector has not maximized its potential due to infrastructure

constraints (Calderon, 2013). Still tourism is an important sector for the Philippine

economy. This industry contributed 10.6% to the country’s GDP in 2015 (Villegas,

2016). The tourism sector alone sustains today around 5 million jobs and numbers show

that the industry is a fast-growing sector (Saddique, 2016).

When tourism is growing fast, it is important to make its development sustainable and

as beneficial as possible for the communities involved. According to Faure et al. (2014),

sustainable tourism refers to mutual benefits and to so-called win-win situations for

both tourist from the more developed countries and for the receiving countries that are

less developed.

One type of accommodation that has appeared to address sustainable tourism

development is the homestay concept (Stabler & Goodall, 1996). Homestays allows

tourists staying in locals´ house instead of living in hotel like traditional tourism (Sood

et al., 2016). This concept is believed to promote tourism at the local level by protecting

local culture, tradition, environment and empowering the locals by creating income and

employment opportunities (Kumar Chhetri, 2015). This concept is therefore known as a

tool for sustainable development in the tourism industry (Stabler & Goodall, 1996).

In other countries the homestay concept is shown to be successful and to contribute with

preliminary positive impacts on local economies, environments, rural villages and

women development (Sood et al., 2016). It has also shown to help to conserve the

villages’ culture, daily lives and identites (Lama, 2013).

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This thesis is based on collected data on location to examine if homestays have potential

to be as successful in the Philippines as in other countries. The study examines if the

homestay concept is sustainably implemented in the Philippines through looking at the

social and economic impacts on the host families and analyze them through theories

about economic and social sustainability.

The aim with this thesis is to explore impacts of the homestay concept in sustainable

tourism development in the Philippines. Following up on this aim, this thesis examines

how the homestay concept is operating and highlights the challenges of the concept in

the Philippines. To elaborate this aim further, next chapter will put the homestay in a

sustainable perspective.

1.1 Homestay as a sustainable tourism development tool Sustainable tourism development comes from sustainable development. Therefore,

principles and objectives of sustainable development can easily be transposed to

sustainable tourism development (Sharpley, 2010). The sustainable perspective can be

defined through social/-, environmental/- and economic sustainability (Boley & Uysal,

2013).

The term “sustainable tourism” has been widely discussed. The United Nations World

Tourism Organization (UNWTO, 2005) defines sustainable tourism as “Tourism that

takes full account of its current and future economic, social and environmental impacts,

addressing the needs of visitors, the industry, the environment and the host

communities”. UNWTO are also pointing out that a suitable balance between

environmental, economic and socio-cultural aspects of tourism development must be

established to guarantee a long-term sustainability (Faure et al., 2014).

As recently stated, sustainable tourism refers to mutual benefits and to so-called win-

win situations for both tourists from more developed countries and for the receiving

countries that are less developed. This win-win situation includes that the less

developed countries may generate much needed foreign currency which is an important

contribution to economic growth. For the tourist who comes from a more developed

country the homestay visit can benefit them through enriching their life with for

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example rich culture. Ideally, sustainable tourism could also lead to a greater

willingness to contribute to the development of the less developed countries through

spreading greater awareness (Faure et al., 2014).

This sustainable picture of tourism is not always accomplished in real life. Tourism,

when developing unlimited, may have negative effects. For example, tourists from the

more developed countries that are not interested in local cultures may put big pressure

on the natural environment in developing countries and even also engage in criminal

activities such as sexual exploitation of children (Faure et al., 2014).

The paradoxes of Third World tourism refer to that tourists travel to less developed

countries for contact with nature and the encounter with foreign cultures. But, the

tourists only want to experience this in their own way, in a so called “environmental

bubble” which leads to that food and hygiene must meet Western standards and that a

hotel infrastructure is built. As a result, tourist stay secluded and economic interaction

with the local population is limited (Faure et al., 2014). This is what homestay tourism

wants to prevent. As earlier described, homestay is defined as a form of tourism that

allow visitors to rent rooms from local families (Rasoolimanesh et al., 2016).

Alternative tourism, like homestay tourism, is one of the fastest growing segments of

international tourism. The growth of specialty tours such as alternative tourism has big

relevance for the less developed countries since most of the exotic places on earth are

located in more inaccessible places. Authentic holidays in low income countries have

been of great interest for consumers from more developed countries (Gladstone, 2005).

This requiring for abundant supplies of tourism services in the informal sector. The

result generates foreign exchange at the same time as it empowers local communities

and does away with the worst excesses of traditional mass tourism (Gladstone, 2005).

For many people in developing countries, micro-entrepreneurship, as homestay, is their

only way to make a living. For making economic advancement in micro-enterprises

there can be limitations, such as lack of basic business skills, lack of access to adequate

information and lack of access to financial means. New technology and business models

unlock the potential for growth. Basic business training, mobile broadband, micro-

loans, mobile money services etc., are resources that have been proven to be successful.

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If micro-enterprising in poor communities is successful it can result in household

expenditures being invested in education or training, increase local employment and

banks that previously ignored businesses of this kind can find them attractive and

important. In turn, this would lead to that micro-entrepreneurs become inclined to join

the formal economy and contribute more to their national tax base (Chandy, 2013).

1.2 Research problem There are many examples of successful sustainable tourism developments in the less

developed countries (Faire et al., 2014) and previous studies have indicated that

homestay tourism has been one (Lama, 2013). So far, there is a lack of studies on how

the homestay concept can contribute to sustainable tourism development and how the

concept is implemented in the Philippines. This report is believed to be a start for

further studies on sustainable tourism development in the Philippines, and specifically

with focus on the homestay concept and the hosts. The study is meant to be unique in

analyzing the concept at a very local level with focus on the families involved. Another

important part of the study is the governmental practices and interest in sustainable

tourism development such as the homestay concept.

The goal with this research is to discuss the development and sustainable

implementation of the homestay concept in the Philippines including highlight

challenges. As earlier stated, the aim of this research is to explore impacts of the

homestay concept in sustainable tourism development which will be made through

following perspectives: assess the social and economic impacts of having a homestay,

identify motivational factors behind local peoples' decisions to put up a homestay,

discuss the governmental role in homestay implementation and explore further ways of

developing homestays in a less developed country with focus on the central part of The

Philippines. As stated earlier, it is important that tourism is developed in a sustainable

way and therefore these perspectives will be examined through the following question

how can homestays be a tool for sustainable tourism development?

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2 The homestay experience This chapter will try to give the reader a feeling of how it is to visit a homestay and it

will emphasize the challenges for making the homestay a sustainable concept. These

challenges will further on be summarized to empirical conclusions which in turn will be

analyzed through already existing theories connected to the homestay concept and

sustainable tourism development.

As earlier stated, this research is unique in its´ way to focus on the people most affected

by the homestay concept, namely the hosts. Even though the hosts in this research are a

part of an organization where those organizations does most of the preparatory work

such as managing bookings, the hosts are the ones that the homestay concept circle

around since they are opening up their homes, entertaining and sharing their daily life

with guests. To be able to get close to homestay hosts and also to make participant

observations, I stayed in eight (8) different homestay and spent time with the families.

Beside participant observation, the collected data is also based on interviews with the

visited host families and key informants. In total, ten (10) homestays linked to different

homestay organizations where interviewed. As well, two (2) women working with the

organization Philippines Homestays, which is the main focus for this research, was

interviewed as key informants to give their perspective on the homestay concept and to

strength or contradict the statements made by the hosts or my observations. For further

cources of action together with methodology statements, see Appendix A.

The specific families profiles, their experiences and opinions will in this chapter

successively be presented through various themes. These themes will follow the

homestay experience itself and will therefore include; planning, getting there, arriving,

dining, entertainment, payment and finally describe the situation where hosts are getting

guests without their organization since this appeared being very important for some

hosts.

2.1 Planning Most of the hosts included in this research are part of the organization Philippines

Homestays that have a website with a register where tourists can see each homestays

profile with information and pictures. To support the research, homestay hosts

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connected to other organizations such as Bohol Homestay and Homestay.com are also

included.

Tourists use Philippines Homestays website to choose the homestay they would like to

stay with and are then sending a request either through the website or by email

(Philippineshomestay). The organization is then contacting the host to make sure they

can accommodate the guests. After i booked my stay with the different homestays I

received a digital PayPal invoice and also a document with more information about the

families and their home such as address and phone number to set up the arrival. Tourists

pay total 600 pesos (12 USD) per night per room, whereof 300 pesos (6 USD) is paid in

advance to the organization through the PayPal invoice and the remaining 300 is paid to

the homestay host in cash (Alcantara, 1).

Through reading on the website tourist get expectations about the experience such as

getting a taste of Filipino way of living and get a touch of simplicity. It is stated on the

organizations’ website whether the host will be able to entertain the guest much or not

(Philippineshomestay).

2.2 Getting there

Getting to the homestays around Bohol (Picture 2.1) is more or less easy since there are

some organized bus routes that takes you almost the whole way, and if it’s not, you can

easily travel with motorbike taxi or similar

vehicles the last part. To some locations a boat

trip is required, which can make it more

difficult since there is no pronounced set time

or fee. All hosts were known as homestay

operators by other residents in the area which

made it easier to get to the homestay. As

picture 2.2 shows do all of the families are

living in smaller towns spread out over whole

Bohol (Philippineshomestay).

Picture 2.1: Map over the Philippines with pin at

Bohol.

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In some locations there are also more than one homestay family, but they are not

clustered together consciously by the organization instead just happen to live in the

same area.

Picture 2.2: Map over Bohol including location of the homestays

= Philippines Homestays

= Bohol Homestay

2.3 Arriving Even though Philippines homestays gives the information that the host should come and

meet you, non of the hosts was coming to meet me. In this cases it unfortunately led to

extra charge for transport the last part to their house since I were not aware of the

distance because you are not given the certain address (Observations).

Depending on the family and which time guest arrives, the hosts are able to greet them

when arriving to their homes. At my first homestay visit the host was at work but had

told me that her daughter and nanny were in the house to meet me. They were, but were

shy and didn’t feel comfortable in speaking English. Some other hosts were able to

greet me upon arrival. Even though some hosts were able to greet me upon arrival I did

not feel welcome as I was expected to do. No host showed me around more than to my

room for the night (Observations).

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The standards of rooms in different homestays differ of course but are generally clean

and fresh. One family had recently moved from the grand parents to their own house

which did not yet have any proper doors inside which led to less privacy (Observation

2016-11-09. The standard of the rest of the house were different but often simple such

as bucket toilet and bucket shower (Observations).

Most of the families are low income families (Alcantara, 2) but all families have some

kind of regular jobs. The types of jobs are various; boat operator, driver, barangay

(small local governmental unit) official and cable channel operator. Bill (2016-11-13)

and Joy, who are connected to Homestay.com, are having the homestay business as

their main income. The financial situation of the families, as the job situations, are very

divers. The homestay host Ceasaria´s (2016-11-15) husband is a seaman and so well

paid that the community comes to them for financial support when on the other hand

Jemima (2016-11-07) is struggling with a repayment of a loan and even asks guests for

a loan, which I experienced (Observation note 2016-11-07). The level of education also

differs. Filma (2016-11-02) have a college degree and also have been going to two

different vocational educations while Razels (2016-11-19) mother who is the host for

their homestay didn’t finish high school.

As shown in figure 2.1 below, some families have 2-3 bedrooms in total and are able to

accommodate 2-4 guests. There are also families who have extended their house to be

able to fit more guests and have up to 5 bedrooms whereof the family only uses one

because the small size of their families. Those families are also those with best

economic situation (Figure 2.2). Families struggling more with their income could use

all the rooms themselves but choose to make it available for guests. When some hosts

having guests the families are living cramped with often four people in the same room

which figure 2.3 is illustrating. The rooms that the families use is also often of smaller

size than the room that the guest gets (Observation notes 2016-10-31; 2016-11-06;

2016-11-08; 2016-11-19).

“I got the big room which their bathroom is connected to. Even if I beg them to knock

my door in the morning and enter to use the bathroom for their daily needs, they refuse.

I feel like I´m pushing them away from their own house when keeping their facilities to

myself.”- Observation note 2016-11-07

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Figure 2.1: Number of bedrooms

5 4 3 2 1

Ceasaria; Bill Razel; Carmela; Filma; Jemima Dhora

Lina; Joy Joannie

Figure 2.2: Number of family members

2 3 4 5 6>

Joy; Bill Filma; Ceasaria; Jemima Carmela Razel

Lina; Dhora

Figure 2.3: Economic situation

Good Moderate Unstable

Ceasaria; Lina; Joy; Filma; Bill Jemima; Razel

Dhora

2.4 Dining

To eat with the families are optional but many tourists choose to since it is cheap

explains Razel (2016-11-19) who is a grown-up daughter to one of the homestay

operators. If tourists choose to eat with the family the organization recommends guests

to let the family know in advance so they can prepare food (Alcantara, 1) since many

hosts prepare food 4-5 days in prior guest arrival (Jemima). There is an additional

charge to have breakfast, lunch and dinner with the family which is paid before

departure together with the amount for renting the room (Alcantara, 1).

Alcantara (2016-10-29) who is working with the organization Philippines Homestays

argues that serving the same food as the family is eating is one of the purposes of the

homestays. This give the guest the opportunity to experience local life of Boholanos.

The homestay hosts included in this research did not unfortunately seem comfortable

with neither letting me go with them to the market to buy additional groceries nor

preparing the meal together. Host have stated the part with preparing food as the most

difficult and stressful part with having guests (Jemima; Lina; Joy; Dhora). Jemima

(2016-11-07) explained that it can be hard to find what tourists want to eat and also that

the preparation takes a lot of time. On the other hand, a lot of hosts asks me as a guest

what I want to eat and gives me special food even though I tell them that I want to eat

the same food as they eat.

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“Once again I got the question what I wanted to eat and once again I answered that I

want to eat whatever they eat.” – Observation note, 2016-11-09.

Razel (2016-11-19) tells me that they are not comfortable with serving the same food as

they eat, which my observations and further comments also shows. To give guests

special treatment when it comes to serve food happens to a greater or lesser extent in all

of the homestays.

Figur 2.4: Level of special treatment of guest during dinner

Serve separate

Serving special food meal and don´t

Serving the same food on the common table eat together

Filma; Bill; Joannie; Jemima; Carmela; Razel; (In some cases:

Dhora; Lina Ceasaria Ceasaria; Filma)

Razel and her family never share the food with their guests since they are shy. Also,

Ceasaria (2016-11-15) gets limited with having guests since they use to have dinner

with her parents whilst when having guest they doesn’t. Also, when the main host in

homestay was working the rest of the family didn’t felt comfortable with eating together

with me (Observation note 2016-11-01).

“We never share the same food with our guests. Sometimes we will ask them if they are

okay with eating the same food, but we always serve it separately to them. We don’t eat

with them, not even when the guest is alone. We are too shy to join.” – Razel, daughter

to one homestay operator on Balicasag Island, Philippines Homestay.

“We use to eat together with my mother and father. But when we have guests we don´t

do that. They are too shy with guests” – Ceasaria, homestay operator on Cabilao

Island, Philippines Homestays and Bohol Homestay.

“Even though the kids come home from school for lunch, they eat together with their

nanny in the kitchen outside and I´m served inside in the living room. I feel left alone.”

– Observation note 2016-11-01.

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Jemima, Carmela and Ceasaria are eating together with their guests but are serving

guests special food in one way or another.

“They bought a whole freshly roasted chicken from the market for 175 pesos, which

showed later on only was meant for me with them refusing to eat from it.” –

Observation note 2016-11-07.

“For dinner all of us had the same food. But I could not have my food from the same

pot as them. Instead, I got my very own cheramic pot with almost as much food as they

get all together in their pot which was used for cooking.” – Observation note 2016-11-

09.

“She serves me the newly cooked rice, squid and a bowl of fish soup. Even though she is

allergic to squid she gives me the bowl of soup which has the biggest piece of fish in it

while she is getting the rice from yesterday and a bowl of soup where it is only

fishbones” – Observation note 2016-11-16.

I also experienced further special treatment around the situation with serving food to

their homestay guests. Where “serve guests firsts” is shown to be part of the Filipino

culture which Cleal (2016-12-07), CEO Philippines Homestays, argues exist.

“They seem to eat whatever my leftovers are” – Observation note 2016-10-31.

“When I have thanked them for the breakfast and walks away from the kitchen for a

short while and then come back I find out that the kids get my leftovers. The knowledge,

that they eat whatever I don’t eat, makes me don’t want to eat it all and pretend that I´m

full in future meals” – Observation note 2016-11-09.

Beyond the social aspect of giving special treatment around serving food there is also an

economic aspect. When families are too eager to satisfy their guests they might forget

the importance of the income from their homestay operation. Joannie (2016-10-29)

admit that Filipinos tend to be too eager to satisfy their guests and find it difficult to say

no. Leslie and Camille (2016-10-25), who are participants in a sustainable development

program, warned me about this scenario where hosts are overwhelming their guests with

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food, which could lead to that the families, are spending more than they earn. To not

cook the same meal for the guests as to the family is not economically good for the

families since it is more expensive to buy smaller portions of groceries as Razel (2016-

11-19) says.

”The income for the breakfast is non. Through serving dinner, I can earn some though,

because I cook for the whole family” – Filma, homestay Cabilao in Loboc, Philippines

Homestays.

“I don´t mind the amount to prepare food, most important is that we can share our

food” – Jemima, homestay operator in Anda, Philippines Homestays.

Not only that some hosts serve special food to their guests which can affect the

economic income from having guests, the charge for meals served might also be too

low. Dhora lives on Panglao Island which is a touristic place which has led to higher

price of food in the area (Department of Tourism, 1). She argues that the charge, which

is 50 pesos for breakfast and 100 pesos for lunch or dinner, is not enough. Also,

Ceasaria (2016-11-15), Lina (2016-11-16) and Razel (2016-11-19), who all live on

islands that is not connected to the mainland, have increased the fee for their meals to

100 pesos and 200 pesos though. This is also the organization Philippines Homestays

aware off and need to look over (Alcantara, 3). Even though the charge for meals might

be too low, Philippines Homestay have stated the importance to prepare whatever the

families use to, both for minimize the risk for “reversed revenue” from having guest,

but also for it importance in the social situation and the cultural experience (Alcantara,

1).

2.5 Entertaining guests

The purpose with homestay is to get an experience that you cannot get at a hotel. This

experience is based on the interaction between guest and host where culture and

tradition should be exchanged (Alcantara, 1). The information given in advance gave

me the expectations that the family would be open to interact with me and that I would

be able to get to know them, there were no high expectations on entertaining more than

accepting me as a family member and through that give me a glimpse of how it is to be

a Filipino and their daily life. The organization is also stating that this is the only thing

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that they are expecting from the hosts, to be there for the guest and give guests the

opportunity to learn about Filipino life (Alcantara, 1). Even though I didn’t think that I

had high expectations on the host I felt that they were not really fulfilled.

Beyond the uncertainty with meal preparation, homestay hosts Filma (2016-11-02),

Jemima (2016-11-07), Carmela (2016-11-09) and Joy (2016-11-16) have also expressed

that there is an uncertainty about entertaining and having guests around. Most of the

hosts were and still are worried if the guests will like them and their house (Filma;

Jemima; Carmela and Dhora). The younger kids of the families where often shy when

first meeting me but where also continually shy to integrate with me as a guest

(Observation notes, 2016-10-31; 2016-11-07; 2016-11-15). Many homestay hosts

explained that their relatives living close to them because of language barriers didn’t

either feel fully comfortable with having guests around, which I also experienced

(Alcantara 1; Filma; Ceasaria; Razel; Joy; Dhora; observation note 2016-11-07)

“When my mom was here, she felt uncomfortable when guests were out in the yard so

she hid inside. We are too shy to talk to them, we cannot really understand them she

said” – Joy, homestay operator, Panglao

“Their Nanny and old family friend, who live in the backyard, are just staying in the

kitchen outside. They don’t like me going there it seems like. They don’t speak English

that good so when I tried to talk to them they seem to be only pressed about the

situation” – Observation note 2016-10-31.

Most families seem to have the perception that it is the cheap price of their

accommodation and food and also the location and its tourist activities that is the

motivation for guests to stay in their homestay (Joannie; Filma; Jemima; Ceasaria; Lina;

Joy; Razel; Dhora). Even though Jemima (2016-11-07) commented that her guests

wants to stay in a Filipino home since they already experienced hotel, she doesn’t

consider herself and her homestay as an attraction and a main motivational factor for

tourists to choose to stay with her. All homestay hosts have witnessed guests going on

activities daytime and only eat dinner and sleep in their homestay.

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“If they are divers, they just need a room to sleep. The important is that they can dive.

So, it is because of the cheap price they are coming here”- Ceasaria, homestay

operator, Philippines Homestays and Bohol Homestay.

”During the day they go swimming, then they come back to eat here” – Razel, daughter

to one homestay operator, Philippines Homestays.

The uncertainty with preparing food and entertaining guests was not talked about in the

first case. Most of the family wanted to give the impression of that there were no

problem around having guests. But some gave information about this which made me

ask about these difficulties and uncertainty with further informants. During my

observation it was clear that these difficulties made almost all the families a little bit

uncomfortable with having guests and uncertain about how to behave around them

(Observation notes). These can also be a result of lack of habit to have guests as some

of them barely have any guests at all, as Jemima and her family (2016-11-07).

As in all previous statements, it differs from family to family. During my stay with

Carmela her daughters made me feel very welcomed through being curious, talkative

and even cuddly (Observation 2016-11-08). Even though the study shows that many

hosts are uncertain about entertaining and having guests around almost all of them

offers or have offered activities outside the house for guests with or without additional

cost, even though most of the guests go by themselves (Filma; Jemima; Razel; Dhora).

Figure 2.5: Level of expressed entertainment offered

Activities for Activities without No activities

additional charge additional charge offered

Bill; Razel; Dhora; Filma Filma; Ceasaria; Joannie Jemima;

Ceasaria Lina; Joy Carmela

Activities offered for additional charge is i.e. snorkel trip with the host´s boat or going

on a tour guide with them as guide and with their vehicle. Activities offered without

additional charge is walking around the area, going to the local sport arena or going to

the beach etc. (Observation notes; interview 2016-11-16; 2016-11-20).

15

The overall experience I got by doing observation with the families interviewed was

that not all feel comfortable with having guests, even though they say so. There were

many situations where they act uncertain and were treated me as a guest more like a

royal than a family member (observation notes 2016-11-07; 2016-11-15; 2016-11-19).

This made me as a guest, who expects to be as a family member feeling a little bit

chocked.

This is also the most common negative feedback Philippines Homestays gets, that the

hosts don’t entertain or interact with the guests. Guests expect the hosts to be around

because they want to learn about their lives. One guest had expressed it as “They just

left me there. They just provided me with a mattress to sleep on and food to eat” where

he stated that the experience was not as he expected (Alcantara, 1).

Even though there is a unconfident in general some hosts states that they have been

improving. Hosts connected to Bohol Homestay or Homestay.com has got training in

hosting guests and are stating that this have helped them with how to handle and

entertain guests (Joy; Ceasaria; Lina). Other hosts have shown interest in training such

as food preparation, business management and education about different costumes

(Carmela; Filma; Jemima).

“By going to the seminar I was able to improve” – Joy, homestay operator on Panglao.

2.6 Paying the host

According to all hosts, most guests stay two nights, and so did I. After two nights with

each homestay it was time for me to pay my hosts what I owe them for the room and

food. Often guests pay the total amount for accommodation and food right before

leaving the homestay. And mostly there is no problem for hosts to get paid (Alcantara,

1). But unfortunately, problems with payment have occurred both for the family and the

organization. Razel (2016-11-19) and her family also experienced problematic

situations with the payment from the guests where the guest didn’t want to pay the

amount to the family as supposed because of a misunderstanding. There was nothing for

them to do so they just let them stay there for the night without paying. Dhora (2016-11-

20), which is homestay host but are also helping the organization with picking up guests

16

if needed, have experienced situations where the guest is not willing to pay for the

homestay since they decided to not go.

The problematic with not getting paid when guests cancel was something Ceasaria

(2016-11-15) and Lina (2016-11-16) pointed out as a negative part with having

homestay. As Jemima (2016-11-07) also told me, they often prepare the food 4-5 days

in advance which lead to no income and only cost when guests cancel just one day or

the same day as they were planned to arrive. Luckily, cancellations don’t happen often,

but when it does, it is an economic problem for those affected who often are families

living on the islands since guests’ plans are more likely to change because of bad

weather (Ceasaria; Lina; Razel).

Some host argues that the share that they are not satisfied with their 50% share for the

effort that they are putting on accommodating guests (Jemima; Carmela). As Jemima

(2016-11-07) puts it, it is the families that are preparing food and opening up their

homes for the guests. Although, almost all hosts argue that they get additional payment

from the guests as tips (Jemima; Carmela; Filma; Ceasaria). The organization

Philippines Homestays are aware of this but their share is just enough to get around with

their operational expenses. So far they have not considered to increase the price for the

guests (Cleal, 1).

On the other hand, the friendship that possibly could be developed between hosts and

guests does Ceasaria (2016-11-15), Dhora (2016-11-20), Razel (2016-11-19) and Filma

(2016-11-02) state as one positive thing about accommodate tourists. Tourists have

invited the hosts to go on small trips with them where the guests also pay for them.

Others buy gifts for the families and some are also helping out in difficult financial

situations.

“A previous guest sent us some money after got to know about the earthquake. For that

I could buy rice, coffee, food in cans and sugar. These supplies I split up in small

packages and gave away to others in the barangay. When I gave it to my neighbors I

asked them to hold a sign where I wrote that the gift was from the guest. Then I took a

picture and send to the guest” – Filma, homestay operator in Loboc.

17

2.7 The entrepreneurial host “Our homestay is only an extra income, because we haven’t been getting a lot of guests,

especially lately” – Razel, daughter to one homestay operator on Balicasag.

“It especially hard to help those who are most in need of the extra money because of the

situation of their house and level of comfort offered to the guests. Not many tourists are

comfortable staying there… If there would be more bookings it should be better for

them.” – Alcantara, 1, Philippines Homestays.

The previous argument where hosts are stating that their share is not enough together

with not getting so many guests through the organizations could be one reason to that

some hosts are extending their possibilities to get guest by themselves through walk-in

guests, headhunting or recommendations from locals or previous guests.

Picture 2.3 (2016-11-16)

As picture 2.3 shows do Lina (2016-11-16) have a sign outside her house where it says

that she has rooms for rent which increase her chance to get walk-in guests since she has

experienced a lot of tourists walking by her house, especially during high season. Lina

(2016-11-16) and Ceasaria (2016-11-15) both accept walk-in guests and get busier from

those than guests from their organizations, even though Ceasaria (2016-11-15) are

connected to both Philippines Homestays and Bohol Homestay.

Many of the hosts that I was visiting are asking their guests, including me, to

recommend their homestay to friends (Filma; Ceasaria; Lina; Bill). Filma (2016-11-02)

18

and Ceasaria (2016-11-15) also explained that since other locals are aware of them

having homestays and accepting guests, they are recommending it to tourists on the

street. The hosts can earn more from guests booking directly to them since the guests

doesn’t need to pay any fee to the organizations and the host can therefore have the full

amount and also take even higher price if they want to (Lina; Ceasaria; Carmela; Razel;

Bill). On the other hand, Filma (2016-11-02), who also allow walk-in guests and also

headhunts tourists uses the cheap price as a selling argument and want to keep the low

price to be able to headhunt more people.

“If there is a foreigner roaming around and trying to find a place to stay, my friends

working around the main road will ask them if they want a room for only P300. Also,

sometimes when I ride the Jeepney and have a tourist beside me, I will introduce myself

and ask them if they booked already. I say that I have a homestay if they would like a

cheaper accommodation. I´m not ashamed to ask, so I can have an extra income” –

Filma, homestay operator in Loboc.

Although some hosts seem to be entrepreneurial in the sense of getting their own guests,

others are depending and the organizations to get them customers and are not putting

much effort on getting more themselves (Jemima; Razel; Dhora). The different

entrepreneurial level is connected to their motivation to operate a homestay which is

showed in figure 2.6 and 2.7. Those who are motivated by the experience are those who

are more entrepreneurial when it comes to getting guests without help from their

organizations.

Figure 2.6: Level of entrepreneurial initiatives

Headhunting Walk-in guests Recommendations No initiatives

Filma Ceasaria; Lina; Carmela Razel; Jemima;

Bill Dhora

Figure 2.7: Main motivation for having a homestay

Experience Extra Income

Ceasaria, Lina Filma, Bill, Carmel Razel, Jemima, Dhora

19

The research indicates that hosts motivation also is connected to their financial situation

(figure 2.3). Families with more unstable financial situation are more driven by the extra

income than the experience with having foreign guests and exchanging cultures.

Ceasaria (2016-11-15) and Lina (2016-11-16) are both wives of husbands who are

seamen and are middle income families. They do also both only have one daughter and

stating that the homestay operation is for keeping themselves busy, sharing their home

and experience other cultures. Filma (2016-11-02) expressed her motivation to mainly

be to meet new people but were also pointing out the need of the extra income, so did as

well Bill (2016-11-13) and Carmela (2016-11-09). Razel (2016-11-19), Jemima (2016-

11-07) and Dhora (2016-11-20) expressed the extra income as the main motivational

factor but also talked positive about the experience with having guests.

Figure 2.3: Economic situation

Good Moderate Unstable

Ceasaria, Lina, Joy Filma, Bill Jemima, Razel, Dhora

Leslie and Camille (2016-10-25) who are a part of a sustainable leadership program said

that they though that “If money is not a big problem they will be motivated only for the

cultural exchange”, which is showed to be the case.

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3 Homestay governance During the field study, four key informants were interviewed, which are tourism

officials on different governmental levels; regional, provincial and local. These

informants give information about the sustainable tourism development in Bohol and

discuss how they perceive the homestay concept connected to it. Through this

information, further challenges with developing homestay sustainably are examined.

As previously briefly described, all the homestay hosts in this research belong to an

organization who is distributing guests to them through their websites. The research

mainly focuses on Philippines Homestays and their homestays but statement are

supported by homestays from a local organization called Bohol Homestay and the

international website Homestay.com.

3.1 The homestay organizations studied Philippines Homestay is a small organization with the aim to trickle the tourist dollar in

to a local community. Their homestays are mainly located in Bohol, which is the

research’s base, but does also have homestays in other parts of the Philippines. They

handpick their homestay hosts to guarantee a good experience (Philippineshomestay)

and are also personally staying with the family before putting them up on the register to

assure that they are appropriate. (Alcantara, 1). Bohol homestay are also of small size

and does only operate in Bohol with the aim to improve quality of life in the poor

communities through empowering them towards a more effective and sustainable

management of resources (Boholhomestay). Homestay.com is an organization operating

worldwide as an internet based register (Homestay).

In contrast to many other homestays that are included in research, Philippines

Homestays and Bohol Homestay are the initiative holders where they contact families

and introducing the homestay concept for them. Homestay.com is more of a platform

where households can choose to sign up and get their own profile page as Philippines

Homestays also have. In community based homestay programs that literature is often

discussing the initiative holders often are locals and the homestays are clustered

together often in rural areas (Sood et al., 2016).

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3.2 Host-training through accreditation As some hosts expressed, there is a need for host-training. This is something that the

Department of Tourism (DOT) can facilitate. The host-training facilitated by DOT are a

one week training which focus on general hospitality management (Orcullo).

Philippines Homestay recently got to know that this actually also is required for

operating legally (Alcantara, 1). It is stated in the law Republic Act No.9593 (Congress

of the Philippines, 2009) that business directly working with tourism, which then

includes homestay business, is required to have a DOT accreditation. Requirements for

getting the accreditation is different for different kind of business, but for homestay

business it is required to have a business permit from the mayor, submitting statistics,

fulfill the set facility standards and also a certificate from joining the host training

(Orcullo).

Even though it would be good for homestays to be accredited, not only for the host-

training but also for being able to being promoted for free by the provincial tourism

office “Bohol tourism office” (Peluchi Kapirig), it can be difficult for all the homestays,

regardless of which organization they belong to, because of their settings. For example,

Razel and her family’s homestays do not have running water (Observation note 2016-

11-19), which is one of the facility standards (Department of Tourism, 2). Also, as the

map earlier shows, all the homestays are spread out and DOT, who are the ones who

issues the accreditation, requires some homestays to be clustered together to be able to

inspect the different homes and also to be able to facilitate the training. The training is

namely partly facilitated by the DOT but also by the Local Government Unit (LGU)

(Orcullo) and the homestays are spread out over five different LGUs.

3.3 Reversed heirarchy In the Philippines there is an reversered hierarchy, where a lot of the authority lies in the

LGUs hands. The LGU can oppose national law such as the DOT accreditation and

choose to not implement it in an ordinance which gives the law no power. Another

example is that, even though it is required by the law that LGUs who is considered as

tourists destinations delegate one person as local tourist officer, it is up to the LGU if

they do and if they prioritize tourism development and whether to put money on it or

not (Gerard). And tourists officers on provincial and regional level interviewed during

22

the research was all expressing concernment of the LGUs commitment for tourism

development (Orcullo, Peluchi Kapirig, Gerard).

Figure 3.1: Governmental levels

As previous mentioned, to be DOT accredited is for business in the first tourism

industry a requirement by the national law. However, Orcullo (2016-11-23), who are

working at the regional office of Department of Tourism in Bohol, argues that the law

including the accreditation is a very generous law which not really comprises any

penalty. For any penalty for those not complying with the law to be implemented, an

ordinance on LGU level is required (Ligalig). The law says “…impose reasonable

penalties for violation of accreditation policies and recommend to the LGUs concerned

the suspension or prohibition of operation of a tourism enterprise” – Congress of the

Philippines, 2009. Ligalig (2016-11-17), who is City Tourist officer in Tagbilaran City,

explains that the LGU of Tagbilaran will implement the accreditation in an ordinance by

2017 but are also stating the importance of a collective implementation of the law.

“If everyone were following us on this, then it would become a clean business and not a

monkey business, there are some that really are like that. But, it is not going to work

until everyone is in the boat.” –Ligalig, City Tourism Officer, Tagbilaran.

“There is a lack of professionalism in this industry, that is the sad thing about it” –

Peluchi Kapirig, product development officer, Bohol Tourism Office.

Peluchi Kapirig (2016-11-23), Gerard (2016-11-23) and Ligalig (2016-11-17), agrees

on that the DOT accreditation implementation is a part of the sustainable tourism

development. If a dispute between tourists and a tourist business occur the government

cannot support the tourists fully since they might not be registered and that they then

don’t know who to chase (Peluchi Kapirig).

Regional : Department of Tourism

(DOT)

Provincial: Bohol

Tourism Office (BTO)

Community: Local

Government Unit (LGU)

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3.4 Eco-tourism: Luxury of simplicity Lack of accredited business is a big challenge for sustainable tourism development in

Bohol (Peluchi Kapirig). Another part of the sustainable tourism development in Bohol

is the eco-tourism program. The tourist situation in Bohol is today tense with Panglao

overloaded with tourists because of the tourist boom was prior a master plan was

created. Panglao was in 2015 getting 76% of foreign tourists (Department of Tourism,

3) and it is expected to get even more tourists as an international airport will be open on

Panglao in 2018 (Ligalig). Tourist arrivals is projected to increase with 20% during the

first 3 years after the inauguration of the international airport (ppt) and City Tourist

Officer Shobel L. Ligalig fears that it will be an even bigger challenge to spread tourist

out on all Bohol by then.

“Instead of promoting Bohol for one week package tour destination, there is a tendency

to promote it as just a day tour destination where tourists could stay on Panglao and

then take the tour. If we want to make the most of tourism, we need to make our tourists

stay longer. And for that, we need to have new packages and new attractions” – Peluchi

Kapirig, product development officer, Bohol Tourism Office.

This uneven distribution that numbers are showing was one reason for Bohol Tourism

Office (BTO) to implement the eco-tourism program. Other reasons was to support

communities that was of the earthquake in 2013 and include locals in the development

of tourists since a survey made in 2014 showed that many Boholanos didn’t seem to be

aware of that Bohol was a big tourism destination. Their perception was that only the

big establishments were able to deal with tourism and that they could not be a part of it

(Peluchi Kapirig). The goal with the eco-tourism program is to make the locals

appreciate what they have and to be proud of it, take advantage of their heritage and to

feel more included in the tourism development (Ligalig).

Peluchi Kapirig (2016-11-23) argues that they wanted to support the rural livelihood by

using what already exist to not give any burden to communities to keep up with what

they think what the experience should be like. Therefore they could come up with

“luxury of simplicity” as is the slogan of the eco-tourism program.

24

“There will always be people who appreciate what you have” – Peluchi Kapiri,,

product development officer, Bohol Tourism Office.

3.5 Sustainable tourism development in Bohol

The approach that DOT and BTO have towards tourism development and management

are interesting from a sustainability perspective. But for being able to manage Bohols

tourism development in their way and implementing such thing as the DOT

accreditation, they need to overcome the problem with the reversed hierarchy in the

governmental mechanism that is previously briefly argues exists.

“Any law can be a law, but to give it teeth, it has to be localized” – Shobel L. Ligalig,

City Tourism Officer, Tagbilaran.

DTO and BOT cannot order LGUs to implement the Republic Act No.9593 as an

ordinance; they can only encourage them to do. Unfortunately, a bad relation between

the provincial governor and the mayor for the LGU because of politics often will get in

the way for this kind of cooperation. Politics may not only cause difficulties in the

cooperation between the provincial and local level but may also cause regression for the

effectiveness within the LGU. As there is a new mayor choose staff often quit because

the new mayor don’t belong to the same party. Low salary and temporary employment

for municipality employees is a further contributory factor for high staff turnover

(Gerard). The problem with these scenarios is that staff tends to delete all their files as

they quit because of pride. The high staff turnover lead to no continuity in work such as

data collection from accommodations in the area which is important for statistics which

itself is important for proposal for financial support by the national government which

can give more funds for training such as host-training (Gerard).

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4 Empirical conclusion This chapter will summarize how the homestay concept is implemented in Bohol, The

Philippines, and highlight its challenges for implementing the concept in a sustainable

way. The empirical data collected through interviews and participant observation results

in the findings that the homestay concept in Bohol is not generally as sustainable

implemented as desired. The following sections will explain the challenges that

homestay hosts, homestay organizations and the government need to overcome to make

a sustainable development of the homestay concept possible.

4.1 Challenge 1: Unsufficient income for hosts The study argues that there is three main reasons to that the homestay operation is not

generating a sufficient income in Bohol. These are 1) low occupancy rate, 2) low share

of total price and 3) low income from serving food.

Hosts argue that they do not get a lot of guest and the flow of guest is also depending on

the season. They are also stating that the income that they get from the few guests they

have is not enough either. There is a dissatisfaction about their share as they only get

50% of the total price tourists pay since the organization Philippines Homestays takes

the rest for their operational costs.

As earlier stated, it is optional for guests to eat with the family during their stay or not,

but hosts argues that many guests choose to because of the cheap price. Even though a

lot of guests choose to buy meals from the hosts, the income from serving food is stated

to not be enough, both by hosts and by Philippines Homestays. Even though the

organization is aware of the low income that their homestay operation gives the host,

they have not considered either to change the percentage or the total price.

This could be possible reasons why hosts decide to get guests themselves without help

from the organization. In generall it is the hosts that are having good financial situations

who tend to have this entrepreneurial sense to get hosts by themselves. Although, hosts

with a more unstable financial situation is more in need of the extra income that walk-in

guest could give.

26

4.2 Challenge 2: Uncertainty in hosting Unfortunately, families argue that they do not feel fully comfortable with showing their

real lifestyle to the guest. The study shows that the situations where the hosts feel most

uncertain are when preparing food and when interacting with guests.

4.2.1 Reversed revenue

Due to these economic challenges as previously mentioned, low occupancy rate, low

share of total price and low income from offering meals, the hosts need to be more

aware of the purpose with homestay, which is to give them the opportunity to earn an

extra income. There are no big expenses for the room itself, but for having the guest

staying with them can give additional expenses if they are not aware of their revenue of

their operation. For example, almost all of the hosts are not complying with the

exhortation from Philippines Homestays where they pointing on the importance to serve

the same food an they eat. The situation when serving separate meal to the guests,

because they are not comfortable with serving the same food as they eat, is therefore not

economically sustainable for the hosts in long-term.

The study argues that hosts are too eager to satisfy their guest and are too conscious to

show their life as they think that their guests expect. They then tend to forget about the

concept of homestay and that they should earn an extra income from having guests. The

study shows that this existing uncertainty leads to, for some hosts, inability to balance

the expenses and the income from having guests. The question then emerges how big

income the families actually make out of having guests.

4.2.2 Social pressure

The financial aspect is only one impact of uncertainty and lack of confident among

hosts. The situation where hosts serve separate meal to their guests could also be

negative in the social aspect where the hosts feel pressure over serving the food that

they think guests would appreciate. This situation can also put pressure on the guests

who choose the homestay with the beliefs to experience the Filipino way of life, be as a

family member and be equally treated as one and are then getting special treatment.

As earlier stated by Alcantara, the homestay concept is based on the interaction between

guest and host where culture and tradition should be exchanged. The guest would

during their stay be given the opportunity to experience the Filipino way of living.

27

However, families claims that tourists visit them mostly because of the cheap price

which can be the reason why many families perceive themselves as only an

accommodation and are not fully applying to the purpose with the homestay concept.

That the hosts do perceive themselves as an accommodation rather than an attraction

can be an underlying cause to that they are not integrating with the guests as desired.

This lack of confident among hosts is shown to counteract this social aspect within the

aim of the homestay concept.

Therefore, the study argues that the uncertainty in hosting, which is based on lack of

skills and knowledge about guest expectations, is one of the mayor challenges to

implement the homestay concept in a sustainable way when it comes to social and

economic impacts. As earlier stated, it is a big variety of homestay host but this

interpretation is general for all the homestays examined. Some of the hosts do

implement the concept in a sustainable way, some does not. It is very varying but

predominant could the implementation in all the cases be improved.

4.3 Challenge 3: Ineffective governance The study argues that this previously described uncertainty of hosting mainly is based

on lack of skills and knowledge such as in cooking, hospitality, business management

and cultural costumes. Therefore, host training is suggested as an alternative solution on

the lack of confidence that majority of hosts possess around Bohol. As well, hosts that

have joined host-training argue that it has mitigated their uncertainty in hosting.

Even though these problems with lack of skills and knowledge are on host level but to

overcome it they will need support from the organization Philippines Homestay which

in their turn need help facilitating these host-trainings from the governmental tourism

offices. The governmental offices BTO and DOT do are aware of the importance of

host-training and are including it as a requirement for being accredited. Through

encouraging the homestay hosts to apply for the accreditation, hosts would also join the

host-training which could be a solution of the lack of confidence that majority of hosts

possess. But for joining the host-training facilitated by the DOT, the LGU in the area

need to prioritize tourism development as well as the homestays need to ensure they

meet the facility standards that are required by the DOT, which not all hosts in this

research do today.

28

Since the DOT need support from the LGU in the homestay areas complicates the

implementation of sustainable tourism development. This because the authority lies

mostly in the hands of all the different LGUs in Bohol and there is lot of governmental

units to convince to work in the same direction. Tourist officer in Bohol interviewed in

this research are all concerned about the LGUs commitment for tourism development.

They claim that better commitment for tourism development on LGU level would lead

to that more LGUs are implementing the accreditation as an ordinance. The requirement

of accreditation would also lead to more accredited businesses which should give more

professional industry and more accurate statistics. Onwards, more accurate statistics

could be used for more financial support by the national government which could be

used for developing the tourism industry with more control from different governmental

levels which should lead to a more sustainable, professional and more controlled

development.

That the authority is on LGU level together with no commitment for tourism

development, tensions between the governor and mayor and high staff turnover makes

the sustainable tourism development, which the homestay concept can be considered as

a part of, more difficult.

29

5 Theoretical analysis To fulfill the purpose of this study, this chapter provides an in-depth interpretation of

the concept connected to sustainable tourism development where the empirical

conclusions are analyzed through existing theories connected to sustainable tourism

development. The following challenges are to be analyzed; 1) economic impact 2)

social impact 3) host-training and 4) importance of governmental mechanism for

sustainable development. The following chapters will discuss the challenges more

specific but will also be solution-oriented to be able improve the implementation more

sustainably.

"There are only a number of homestay programs that perform well and able to sustain”

– Ramli et al., 2014.

The empirical conclusions may seem critical but other studies show that it´s not only in

Bohol the results are not satisfying. Ramli et al., (2014) explains that even though there

have been 154 programs for homestays in Malaysia since 1970s the performance and

the sustainability of the programs are not satisfying. Tosun (2001) argues that every

kind of tourism development that not compromising the ability of future generations to

satisfy their own needs could be understood as sustainable tourism development. But as

the empirical conclusions states, they are not fully aware of the value of their culture

which might make it fade.

5.1 Uncertainty in hosting: Negative economic As the empirical conclusions states, the homestay operations has, more or less, negative

economic and social impacts on all hosts included in this research. Many hosts argue

that they possess an uncertainty of hosting which the study finds to be correlated to

some negative impacts.

The study does not show any signs on that the claimed uncertainty give guests negative

economic impacts remarkable, but for the hosts it does. In terms of economic impacts,

hosts´ economy get negatively affected by the 1) low occupancy rate, 2) non-sufficient

income due to low share of the total price paid by guests and 3) low income from

serving food.

30

Hosts states that their occupancy rate is not satisfying and also that it is highly

depending on seasons. That tourism development may provide only seasonal

employment and leaving people unemployed for the rest of the time are also Budhathoki

(2013) stating. Even though hosts included in this research do have regular jobs the

seasonality affects their possibility to operate the homestay on full time. Sood et al.

(2016) highlight the tourism seasonality limits the earning period and is an important

factor for locals’ commitment to homestay operations.

Even though some host has expressed that the homestay do not give them a sufficient

income for what they sacrifice. But the decision made by the organization not to

increase the total price for the guests is supported by the World Travel Trend Report

from 2011/2012. It is stated that majority of tourists wants a sustainable holiday, as

homestay is considered to be, but many are still remaining unwilling to pay extra for

this (IPK International, 2011). The World Travel Trend Report from 2015/2016 also

claims that the low price of this accommodation is a key selling point (IPK

International, 2015). On the other hand, Ramli et al (2015) discuss that there is a

connection between satisfactory income for the hosts and for the homestay concepts to

be successful, which give relevance to Philippines Homestays to consider the income

that hosts get by accommodate guests and examine it is possible to elaborate with the

percentage in favor of the host.

According to Budhathoki (2013) tourism development may increase living cost of local

communities such as price for food. That the food is more expensive for families living

in tourism areas are also shown in the study which hosts states as a reason for the charge

taken from guest for served meal is not enough.

5.2 Uncertainty in hosting: Negative social impact

The uncertainty of hosts where they give guests special treatment, as highlighted as a

challenge in the empirical conclusions, and how this affects the social sustainability of

the homestay concept, will in this section be discuss throughout various literature.

As previously stated, this existing uncertainty among host around Bohol does negatively

impact them on a social level. The study shows that hosts have lack of confidence when

it comes to integrating with the guests which may give the host social pressure. They do

31

also not seem aware of the importance of giving the guest the opportunity to experience

their daily life and the importance of their culture. That this is a problem, which is

needed to overcome for implementing the concept in a sustainable way, do previous

studies support.

5.2.1 Social impacts on host

Hosts argue that it can be hard to find what they think that the guests want to eat and

also that the preparation on serving the special food is taking a lot of time. Regarding

lack of time, Sood et al (2016), Dahles (2000) and Reimer and Walter´s (2013) argues

that it can be stressful for women to satisfy tourists need while having traditional female

chores such as washing, childcare, cleaning and cooking. Also, Phimmakong (2011)

argues that lack of time is a challenge for hosts since they need to be available 24 hours

a day.

That previously stated, Bohol Tourism Offices started the eco-tourism program because

there were a lack of engagement among locals in the tourism development. Budhathoki

(2013) argues that this is a common challenge due to an ancient mindset that luxurious

hotels is required to make a particular place a tourists destination. He claims that this

leads to that people have hard to imagine their village turning into a tourist destination.

This can be one reason to the inability for hosts to be able to perceive themselves as

attractions instead of only an accommodation as the study shows that many hosts does.

The study argues that hosts do not consider themselves as an attraction and that this is a

challenge for implementing the homestay concept in a sustainable way. Previous studies

support this statement and points out the importance of making the rural village the final

destination for tourists (Budhathoki, 2013).

5.2.2 Social impacts on guests: Experience

Not only that guests often get served special food during their stay with the families,

they are also not always sharing the meal with the hosts. As early stated in this research,

tourists from more developed countries have in recent years expressed a greater interest

in recent years for more “authentic” holidays (Gladstone, 2005). In the study Sood et al.

made in 2016 about participants in sustainable tourism development they state that

letting guests know about the realities of the hosts´ daily life and routine gives

authenticity to the homestay experience for the guests.

32

According to Tucker and Lynch (2004) homestays is more than selling “just a bed”

where the host would consider hosting as a lifestyle choice. That guests and hosts

integrate and share each other’s culture and lifestyle is the basis of the homestay

concept according to Ramli et al (2015). Rivers (1998) also state that the interaction

which focuses on learning local culture and lifestyle is an important part of the

homestay concept. The opportunity given to tourists to experience country lifestyle,

meeting local people and enjoying local heritage are identified by Ramli et al (2015) as

important motivational factors for tourists to choose to stay at a homestay. Also Sood et

al (2016) argues that it is vibrant culture and unique traditions that attract tourists.

Therefore, to give opportunity for tourists to stay and experience rural people´s lifestyle

through traditional food and cultural activities is a component which is heavily

influence the success of the homestay concept (Ramli et al., 2014). After this statements

is study is able to state that the lack of interaction between host and guests such and

special treatments for the guest around meal served then gives a critical situation for the

sustainability of the implementation of the homestay concept in Bohol. For homestays

around Bohol to be more successful they should according to previous theories engage

more in interacting with guests and let them experience their daily life.

5.2.3 Sustainable perspective

There is also a sustainable perspective of the importance for the homestay to be

considered as an attraction. Pandey et al (1995) are also supporting the importance for

the homestays to be an attraction rather than an accommodation. They claim that, when

locals realize that their cultural resources are of great importance for them as it is main

attraction for tourists, they will also protect it. This is important according to

Budhathoki (2013) because local people get influenced by culture of another group and

may then try to adopt it if they are not fully appreciating their own which can lead to

that local people may lose their local traditions and culture.

“… Increase awareness among local people to preserve their local culture and tradition,

which is a main attraction of tourism.” – Budhathoki, 2013

To preserve the local culture is on part of sustainable tourism development (Faure et al.,

2014) and give additional importance for hosts to aware of the value of their culture and

33

that should be the main attraction for guests visiting them, which this study shows that

hosts tend not to be. Hosts are worried about what guests may think about them and

their lifestyle and are eager to serve their guests in the way that they think the guest

would appreciate, which sometimes too much effort is put behind.

Ramli et al (2015) claims that giving the opportunity for tourists to stay and experience

rural peoples lifestyle through traditional food and cultural activities is not only for

great importance for the guests experience but also of great importance to be able to

classify the homestay as sustainable and for it being successful. Budhathoki (2013)

highlight the importance of successful homestays and stats that if they are successful

operated, homestay tourism can be an alternative to the problems that comes with mass

tourism; failing to benefit local community and cultural damage (Budhathoki, 2013).

Baikuntha and Halpenny (2013) also argue that only homestays that are well planned,

developed and managed can reduce negative impacts that comes with tourism growth

and work as a tool for susastainable tourism development.

Also, sustainable tourism should include exchanging culture which raise awareness and

respect (Ibrahim and Razzaq, 2011). Interaction among different culture and religion

which helps to understand others culture and religion. According to Budhathoki (2013)

this lead to more respect to each other’s culture and increase harmony around the globe.

This statement gives additional importance for hosts to focus on the interaction and to

not be only an accommodation but being the final destination with focus on interaction

between hosts and guests.

The analysis argues that the interaction between hosts and guests are important for a

successful homestay and that homestay operations need to be successful and well-

managed to be able to act as a tool for sustainable tourism development. If this is

possible to achieve with through host-training will in the next chapter be discussed.

5.3 Host-training As the empirical conclusions argue, host-training can be a part of implementing the

homestay concept in a more sustainable way. Literature about sustainable development

are supporting this theory and Ramli et al. (2014) are stating that lack of awareness and

general knowledge about tourism has shown to be a main failure factor in sustainable

34

tourism development. Therefore, homestay operators need to keep updating their

knowledge and skills about managing their homestays if they want to sustain and

succeed (Ramli et al., 2014). That tourist officer is aware of locals perception of

inability of participating in tourism and also their goal with integrating them in tourism

is hence one step in the right direction when developing sustainable tourism and

homestays as part of it.

5.3.1 Lack of skills and knowledge

Lack of skills in tourism management is also a problem in other countries such as

Nepal, even though this is a country where the homestay concept is well established

(Lama, 2013). Saville (2001) state that people in less developed countries, which many

of them live in poverty, often lack in cooking skills, business management skills and

generally knowledge about tourism. Sood et al. (2016) continues with that other

challenges that homestays might meet are lack of entrepreneurial skills and lack of

commitment towards the homestay program. Furthermore, argue that these challenges

are affecting the long-term sustainability of the homestay concept. This different

challenges in lack of skills and knowledge are proven in this research to be the case and

to relate to the hosts uncertainty. The analysis then conclude that this might have

negative impact on the sustainability in the implementation of the homestay concept in

Bohol.

5.3.2 Importance for hosts

The study argues that locals around Bohol might not perceive themselves as potential

engaged in tourism development. Sood et al. (2016) also describe that this perception,

where hosts might think that only those people having some sort of experience in hotel

can run a homestay, also exists in India. They state that homestay participants are not

always confident about their ability as hospitality entrepreneurs. Hosts fear that urban

people may look down upon locals’ basic lifestyle, such as their food (Sood et al.,

2016).

The lack of training and skills in tourism and hospitality can be a cause for locals to not

choose tourism as livelihood according to Sharpley and Vass (2006) and Tosun (2000).

Razzaq et al. (2011), Liu (2006) and Sood et al. (2016) all claims that, for preventing

locals poor image of their own capability and the lack of skills, training and guidance in

hospitality for creating understanding of different cultures is needed.

35

Sood et al. (2016) also states that mentorship programs aligned to the core vision of

homestay could give encouragement and engagement which could solve lack of

entrepreneurship. A mentorship program could, according to Sood et al. (2016),

familiarize other cultures and improve trust and multicultural tolerance. It could also

provide basic English training which would improve boost self-confidence.

Ramli et al. (2015) claims that courses in hospitality should be given to homestay

operators to increase hosts knowledge and hence will attract guests to come. They argue

that training for hosts should make them more involved and that the involvement of

hosts is of great importance to create a good homestay. Liu (2006) explains that

unfamiliarity with the nature of tourism can lead to lack of enthusiasm among locals to

engage in tourism development. Locals may not have been exposed to foreign cultures

and may not have been tourists themselves (Bhuiyan et al., 2011).

5.3.3 Importance for sustainable tourism development

The homestay concept builds on that the community is committed to participate and

apprehensions, fears and prejudice may cause low motivation for locals to participate.

Sood et al. (2016) argues that this is due to non-access to information and skills.

Therefore, they state the importance of not to only focus the training on already existing

hosts but also include all interested members of the community to be able to expand the

homestay concept. The field study shows, on the other hand, that DOT only facilitate

host-training if the request comes from a LGU and are not taking any initiative

themselves to inventory interested people.

Harrison (2001) argues that attention to education and training is crucial for eco-tourism

to be successfully introduced to rural areas. There are several criteria that are very

important for the successful sustainable development of homestays and Ramli et al.

(2015) have ranked the most important. The most important criteria is that the homestay

itself should have good ability in managing their homestay and attract tourists which

should make the homestays able to operate in long term.

It is stated by Budhathoki (2013) that the government should provide training and

education to develop skills of poor people. Next chapter will therefore discuss how the

36

government could improve their support in implementing homestays in a more

sustainable way.

5.4 Government role in developing sustainable homestay

This study claims that the reason for homestays in Bohol not being sustainable

successful is on the host level but need support from government to be solved, such as

through facilitate host-training. Saufi, O´Briend and Wilkins (2014) discuss the

connection between the governmental mechanism and successful sustainable tourism

development and claims that it is strongly related.

“The disjointed regional tourism power structure inhibits coordination among regional

departments, and results in uncertain and fragmented tourism planning, failure of

tourism program implementation, and weak tourism regulation within tourist

destinations.” - Saufi, O´Briend and Wilkins, 2014

5.4.1 Lack of registered homestays

Mura (2015) argues that homestays can be a solution to unregulated tourism

development in developing countries. Therefore, the study argue that it is important for

the government in the Philippines to continue their work with getting homestays

accredited so that the homestays not become a part of this unregulated tourism. But,

Bohol is not the only destination where they have problem with the cooperation

between the government and homestays. Previous study show that it is common in the

tourism industry that unregistered homestay operators is a illegal issue (Ramli et al,

2014).

That the study argues the implementation of national law in the Philippines as a

problem, such as the DOT accreditation, is supported by Honey and Gilpin (2009).

“Good Policies alone are not sufficient for development of tourism, effective

implementation and regulation of such policy is the most. “– Honey and Gilpin, 2009

Sood et al. (2016) argues that a system where homestay operators can claim subsidies

on electricity and water could encourage more hosts to comply with the government´s

requirements. Baikuntha & Halpenny (2013) states that clear guidelines on what is

expected from the host and what standards that is required to operate a homestay could

37

increase the number of registered homestays. Chipumuro and Lynette (2011) are also

highlight the importance of creating awareness of the requirements for homestays from

the government. Sood et al. (2016) are stating that there are not only a lack of

knowledge about the registration but also of the procedure how to register.There is no

doubt that the government in Bohol in this research has not fully shared the system

around the DOT accreditation, since Philippines Homestays who has many homestays

around Bohol didn’t know about it until recently.

Ramli et al. (2015) support the importance for DOT accreditation highlighted by various

tourism officers in Bohol. Ramli et al. (2015) argues that it is important for homestays

to apply for a license from the ministry of tourism or similar and that requirements such

as separate bedroom, proper toilets and high standard of hygiene should be stated. This

means that, according to both DOT existing requirements and the requirements

suggested by Ramli et al. (2016), some families in this research should are not allowed

to legally operate a homestay because of low standard of their house.

5.4.2 Hosts inability in meeting the requirements

The difficulty for locals to register their homestay because of inability to meet the

required standards set by policymakers, such as proper bathroom and running water, is

also shown in previous studies in Malaysia and Thailand (Liu, 2006; Sood et al., 2016;

Phimmakong, 2011). Sood et al. (2016) suggest that this problem with households not

able to meet the required standards should be solved through financial support such as

financial loans from the government. This, together with hospitality training, would

make lower socio-economic families being able to participate in the homestay concept

(Leisher et al., 2011).

“Every household cannot comply with ‘hotel-like’ hospitality standards and hence

misses the opportunity for participation.” - Sood et al., 2016

Both Sood et al. (20016) and Kayat (2002) are critical towards the high requirements

since the concept should address poverty and argues that the requirements should be

changed instead of the ability of hosts to meet them. Kayat (2002) argues that any

peaceful and clean household should be able to become a homestay without remodel

their house to a standardized hotel like version. Sood et al. (2016) claims that if the

government encourage hotel like standards of hospitality they affect the sustainability of

38

the concept where they fail to provide tourists the authentic homestay experience, which

is the primary objective of the concept. They also suggest that homestay guidelines

should include requirements focused more on best practice of the existed facilities and

on providing cultural experiences to the guests (Sood et al., 2016). These statements

from existing literature support the findings of this study which is that more effort

should be put on the knowledge about hosting to assure a rich experience for guests

including interaction and cultural exchange. Unfortunately, cultural experience given to

customers is nothing that DOT, that assigns the accreditations, ensures during their

inspection but is only highlight it during host-training, which no host included in this

research had so far joined.

5.4.3 Homestay dependence on government

According to Budhathoki (2013) homestay programs do not benefit local communities

if not the government does market the tourism industry in a proper way. Therefore, the

study argues that the eco-tourism program, where Bohol Tourism Office is pointing on

the luxury of simplicity is one step in the right direction.Sood et al. (2016) argues that

new itineraries connected to the area where the homestay is located could help increase

tourist flow for these homestays. Ramli et al (2015) make additional value to this

statement when they claim that location such as easy access to tourism attraction is of

importance for the success of homestays. This is something that is included in the eco-

tourism program of Bohol, where they want to spread out tourist arriving to Bohol.

Furthermore, regarding the eco-tourism program, the study suggests that homestays

around Bohol should be included in the program to increase the tourist flow additional.

Findings such as the success of homestays is depending on constant effective

collaboration among the host, agencies and various levels of government where made

by Baikuntha & Halpenny (2013), Wong, Mistilis and Dwyer (2010), Jamal and Stronza

(2009) and Beritelli (2010). Therefore, Baikuntha and Halpenny (2013) recommend

hosts to be strategic in their partnership with local governmental officials which in this

case should mean to comply with the required DOT accreditation to be able to be

promoted through the government.

The study shows that the success of homestays around Bohol is depending on support

from the government which on the other hand is identified as a challenge for developing

39

homestays by Kwaramba et al. (2012) since the government mechanism is not always

effective in less developed countries.

5.4.4 Ineffective government

Lack of effective governmental mechanism has according to Sood et al. (2016) hindered

the implementation of homestay systems such as the DOT accreditation and the benefits

with it for more sustainable homestays.

“The practice of nepotism in job placement within tourism departments resulted in some

positions being filled by unqualified individuals. Ultimately, this negatively influenced

the quality of officials´ service provision, such as information dissemination, to their

host community.” – Saufi, O´Briend and Wilkins, 2014.

The way employment in governmental levels works, when governmental officials

favoring friends is also called nepotism. Saufi, O´Briend and Wilkins (2014) argue that

this have negative impact on local people´s perception of engaging in tourism and

information is not spread to the community. And Cole (2006) claims that this lack of

information limits local people´s knowledge about tourism and discourage their

empowerment.

It is stated that homestay will not succeed without the cooperation with the government.

Therefore Ramli et al. (2015) states that support from the government is an important

requirement for successful homestays. Which in turn is required for implementing the

homestay concept as a tool for sustainable tourism development.

40

6 Conclusion Authenticity, cultural and social interaction on a personal level is what homestay

tourists expect from the homestay experience. If hosts then, as in these cases, don’t

allow tourists to come close, to come outside the tourist bubble and to experience the

Filipino way of living, the concept lose attractiveness. This research claim that there is a

lack of confidence when it comes to hosting and that this cause the lack of opportunity

for guests to experience hosts culture and daily lifestyle. This general uncertainty in

hosting and about the homestay concept also lead to negative social and economic

impacts on hosts such as social pressure and reversed revenue where they put more

money on having guests than what they earn.

For being more attractive and to fulfill the purpose with the concept, homestays in

Bohol should be encouraged to showcase their lifestyle, culture, tradition and heritage

more since previous literature shows that this is a motivational factor for tourists to

choose homestay. The study argue that this could be reached through raising awareness

about the purpose of the homestay concept, increase skills and knowledge about

cooking, hosting, business management, entrepreneurship and cultural differences.

The empirical conclusion argue that government has a responsibility to facilitate hosts

with host-training, but after analyzing the empirical conclusions with existing literature

the findings is that they not only need to facilitate with host-training but also financial

support if needed and information such as about the process of homestay registration.

For the governmental departments on different levels to be able to do this they need to

overcome ineffectiveness in the governmental mechanism such as nepotism and the

reversed hierarchy that exists where the majority of authority lies in the lower level of

the government which complicates the commitment of working towards a more

sustainable tourism development.

41

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Filma; homestay operator in Loboc. 2016. Personal interview 2016-11-02.

Gerard P.R.N.; Statistics and data, Bohol Tourism Office. 2016. Tagbilaran, personal

interview 2016-11-23.

Jemima; homestay operator in Anda. 2016. Personal interview 2016-11-07.

Joannie; homestay operator in Tagbilaran. 2016. Personal Interview 2016-10-29.

Joy; homestay operator in Panglao. 2016. Personal interview 2016-11-16.

Leslie & Camille; members of the SIMP program. 2016. Manila, personal interview

2016-10-25.

Ligalig, S.L.; City tourism officer, Tagbilaran Local Governmental Unit. 2016.

Tagbilaran, personal interview 2016-11-17.

Lina; homestay operator on Cabilao Island. 2016. Personal interview 2016-11-16.

Orcullo, J.; Tourism Operations Assistant, Department of Tourism, region VII. 2016.

Tagbilaran, personal interview 2016-11-23.

Peluchi Kapirig, G.; Product development officer, Bohol Tourism Office, Tagbilaran.

2016. Personal interview 2016-11-23.

Razel; homestay operator on Balicasag Island. 2016. Personal interview 2016-11-19.

Unpublished resources Department of Tourism (1). Economic Development: Tourism – Consolidated data by

the BTO and DOT7, December 2015

Department of Tourism (2). Region VII. Annual Report on the regional distribution of

travelers, Bohol January – December 2015.

Department of Tourism (3). Republic of the Philippines. Accreditation Division

Inspection Checklist (HOMESTAY).

I

Appendices

Appendix A Methodology statements

Scientific approach According to Åsberg (2000) it is important to be clear with what choices was made

during the work and at the different scientific levels to actualize the research question

and to get a more distinctive work. The perception of reality is one level which is called

ontological approach. This research is ontological defined as idealistic which means that

the ideas and the mental images is considered as the reality (Åsberg, 2000). It is the

different perceptions in the matter of implementing the homestay concept in sustainable

way that will be the context.

Another scientific statement was done on the epistemological level where it is stated

what the knowledge is based on (Åsberg, 2000). This research is epistemological

defined with empiricism which means that knowledge is based on experiences such as

observation (Åsberg, 2000). The aim is to gather data from the field and therefore is the

knowledge based on empirism and the different perceptions from hosts, key informants

and observations in the field was put together and is the result of the study.

The information from the field was idiographic gathered. Which according to Smith

(2010) means that the objective is to seek the information in each specific case and to

understand the individual. Also, an inductive approach was used as research design. An

inductive approach refers to collect information of a specific empirical phenomenon

which general conclusions are based on (Smith, 2010). With this logic in work I was not

deciding categories in advance. Instead I openly collected data and categorized patterns

after the collection. This approach was chosen to get a deeper understanding without

any prejudice.

Furthermore, the design of the research is subjective which means that it is based on the

notion that reality is personally defined. This means that the research reflects my

personally values and that the findings could have been different if someone else

analyzed the same data. Smith (2010) argues that this is the case since the findings of

this research are based on authors intuitions. The subjective paradigm can process

through Grounded theory. Smith (2010) explains that this is a systematic method which

main purpose is to conclude some general patterns of the phenomena through

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systematically collect and code subjective data. I was collecting more and more data

until I could reveal some general patterns. These patterns are the statements specific to

this phenomenon and cannot be generalized for the phenomena in different context.

Data collection The research is substantially based on primary data but secondary data was also used to

to support or contradict arguments. The primary data was collected through in-depth,

semi-structured interviews with host families and key informants. When using the

grounded theory design, a central principle is that everything is data (Smith, 2010). And

according to Åsberg (2001) both numbers and words are needed to understand a

phenomenon. Therefore, to be able to answer the research question both qualitative and

quantitative data was conducted (Åsberg, 2001).

Interviews

Semi-structured interviews was chosen to get a deeper insight of the phenomena

studied. As Smith (2010) states, the aim with semi-structured interviews is to explore

one or more topical areas through general questions. Also, personal interviews was

chosen since it, according to Smith (2010), is a key tool for gathering data when the

research is based on a subjective design, as this research is.

The same general questions were asked to all the informants, but the questions were

also tailored to make the interview more interactive. The general questions included

subjects such as motivation, overall experience, pros and cons, challenges and visions.

This changed with time as new interesting topic appeared to assure that I collected the

correct data.

The interviews were made in the families’ home since an interview should preferably be

done in setting where the informants feel comfortable. Favorably the interviews should

have been done in a language that they feel comfortable in speaking. But for making the

interview more relaxing and not as an examination I chose not to have an interpreter.

Also, most Filipino’s are good in speaking English since this is one of the official

languages.

Participant observation

III

Participant observation was chosen to become more involved in the concept being

studied. Through this method, I could gather personal knowledge of the phenomena I

was studying. This gave me a deeper understanding of the complexities of the

phenomena that I may not have understood if I only had been using interviews and

observation while visiting for the interview appointment. For example, information

about the social practice and the interaction between guests and host were able to be

collected thanks to the participant observation. All though, as Smith (2010) states, it

was important for me to know that my presence could change the social situation and

can give error in interpretation of my observation.

Secondary data

Secondary data was provided through internet sites, social media and different

publications like statistic report from Department of Tourism.

Settings Sample

To be able to answer the research question due to the feasibility, the study focused on

the host perspective since this was the most accessible for me which Smith (2010) states

as important. This way of way of choosing sample can also be called convenience

sampling (Smith, 2010). The informants of this study were not only hosts in term of

homestay families but also key informants. The homestays interviewed was primarily

connected to Philippines Homestays, but there were also homestays connected through

other organizations interviewed to get a wider perspective and be able to collect enough

data. To make the research further feasible, the data was collected through those hosts

that I could encounter through existed organizations and therefore the research is based

on these specific hosts. The informants are therefore from the formal market where their

businesses belong to an organization. These families are only some of the locals in the

area running this sort of business but get to represent these businesses in general. Key

informants that have knowledge about tourism and homestays in the Philippines were

contacted to get wider perspective. In total, there were 9 homestays linked to different

organizations and 7 key people’s interviewed and 8 observation made.

The field study

Several reasons made me choose the Philippines as the field of study: (1) the

Philippines has the possibility to develop bigger tourism industry but are just not there

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yet (Calderon, 2013), 2) the homestay concept does not seem to be so developed in the

country, (3) the organization Philippines Homestays, which is based in the Philippines,

was willing to contribute which made the study feasable.

Philippines Homestays is an operator for homestays in the Philippines. I contacted

Philippines Homestay and they showed interest in contributing with the knowledge they

possess and help me find persons of interest to contact. Bohol is the area where

Philippines Homestays first started and have most of their homestays, which on the

other hand are only eight. The few people working with this organization are also living

in Bohol (Cleal, 1). These are strong factors why I chose to have Bohol as my base.

Also, the research is, because of this access, mostly focused on the organization

Philippines Homestays and the homestays that they offer in Bohol.

Furthermore, the non-governmental organization, Bohol Homestay works with

community-based sustainable tourism projects and offer homestays in around Bohol

(Bohol Homestay, 2016). The international website Homestay.com also offer some

homestay accommodations on the Island of Bohol (Homestay) and some of these

homestay families are included in the study. I chose to examine how the concept is

perceived from families connected to other organizations to see if there were any

differences in the perceptions due to which organization the families belong to.

Coding to analyze the information To start the coding process I started with open coding which means I read each phrase

with the intent to be open minded and to identified what the hidden themes behind it

was. When looking for themes in the different sentence I tried to do it without

preconceived ideas about what might emerge (Smith, 2010). Although, it is hard to not

have any preconceived ideas about the themes since I was familiar with the theories

about the homestay concept and also that I used semi-structured interview and had some

already predetermined general questions.

After doing the open coding I identified deeper themes that the preliminary codes

reflect, this phase is also called axial coding. This phase involves more critical thinking

and requires the ability to abstract. The axial codes need to be more general than the

open codes but still rooted in the original data (Smith, 2010). These themes were the

ones being analyzed through already existed theories. Since sustainable tourism

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development comes from the principles and objectives of sustainable development

(Sharpley, 2010) these themes was analyzed through sustainable development theories.

Methodology discussion Personal interviews comes with some potential sources of error. This can influence the

quality of the data collected. To be aware of these different types of errors that could

occur helped me minimize the risk of biasing my results. Having preconceived ideas of

the information I would get is an error that may come from me as an interviewer as

Smith (2010) states. To counteract this from happening I was listening honesty and tried

to hear what the informants really was saying.

The source of error could also come from the informants. Lack of interest could be one

problem according to Smith (2010). But this was prevented through choosing

informants that have an interest in telling their stories, which most of the families have,

since they run a homestay.

Further potential sources of error is that some of the informants were not fully

comfortable with communicating in English and could limit their expressions.

The choice to focus on homestays connected to Philippines Homestays was a source of

error since their operation is not big. This leads to that the empirical data needed to be

complemented with informations from other hosts connected to other organizations.

These homestays are not operating in the same settings which affects the validity of the

findings.

Ethical statement Informed consent

Before the homestay families was accepting me as a guest they got the information that

I was doing a research about the homestay concept and that I were about to ask them

some questions.

Ethical dilemmas

The informants could have given me strategic answers that they think would have given

them some kind of advantage or protect from unwanted consequences. Filippinos are

known for being very friendly which means that they sometimes have difficult saying

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no, speaking up for themselves and being critical (Baringer, 2006). This study required

them to be honest and give critics about experiences with tourists and the organizations

that they belong to, if there were any to give. During interviews, the informant was

never forced to give critics but they were encouraged to do. To get access to this critics,

I stated many times that I was not sent from either the government or their organizations

but was doing the interview for research purpose only.