Homestay in Sri Lanka. Operators and Clients perspective

Masters Thesis from the year 2013 in the subject Tourism - Miscellaneous, grade: A, language: English, abstract: The present study tries to answer the broad question how the concept of homestay has been perceived by both tourists who visit homestay and homestay operators in Sri Lanka. The general explicit objective of this research study is to explore the homestay tourism product attributes, tourists motivation and satisfaction and the perceptions of host communities on the homestay tourism product. Obviously the research is socio-economically and culturally situated and requires a rich narrative description which would support both qualitative and quantitative methods. The study utilized exploratory research design to examine the predicting effects of tourists motivation and product attributes on tourists satisfaction, the relationship between tourists motivation and tourists overall satisfaction and hosts perceptions of homestay. Homestays in Sri Lanka have become increasingly popular as an accommodation option among domestic and international tourists. The client patronage to homestay is increasing drastically given the increasing tourist arrivals to the country. In addition, operators need to regard which attributes influence tourist satisfaction and their destination choice in order to formulate the strategies that attract and better satisfy customers. Although several researchers have studied the cultural and heritage tourism, they did not provide homestay issues, especially homestays in Sri Lanka.