For environment-conscious tourism stakeholders in the Mekong Sub-Region, homestays are an essential component of a carbon-neutral tourism strategy.
Having tourists stay at locals’ homes instead of hotels accomplish a wide variety of sustainability goals at once: it promotes cultural exchange between tourists and locals; it reduces local pressure to engage in environmentally damaging activities such as deforestation or overfishing; and it directly supports local families and businesses, instead of contributing to the profits of large, multinational corporations.
Finally, homestays offer visitors a more authentic and personal travel experience compared to those provided by large, commercial, impersonal hotels. Visitors have the opportunity to live and interact with local families and communities, gaining a deeper understanding and appreciation of the local culture and environment.
In Viet Nam, homestays have become the linchpin for an off-the-beaten-path travel experience that avoids overcrowded tourist sites.
Visitors to Che Can, a Hmong ethnic minority village northeast of Dien Bien Phu City, can stay in picturesque homestays in traditional Hmong stilt houses. Che Can locals still wear traditional Hmong costumes, and guests of local homestays pay budget prices to live as the locals do – including home-cooked meals of spring rolls, roast duck, rice and rice wine.
Best of all, 100% of the profits go to locals who own and operate them, not outsiders.
In Cambodia, Chi Phat Community-Based Ecotourism provides an authentic local experience in the Southern Cardamoms National Park. Originally organised in in 2008 by the Wildlife Alliance NGO improve local environmental conservation, the Community Based Ecotourism (CBET) initiative has transformed a sleepy village into the gateway to the Cardamoms.
The homestay experience is part and parcel of Chi Phat; for US$5 a night, visitors can live with local families, and eat dinner with the families (most of whom don’t speak very good English – communicating across the cultural gap is part of the fun).
Finally, Yunnan in China PRC has witnessed skyrocketing popularity of its homestays, as tourism bounces back post-lockdown. For the first time in years, occupancy rates were high during the Spring Festival holiday; with over 7,000 homestays and inns in Dali alone, this represents a remarkable comeback from near-zero tourism at this time last year.
Authenticity is the name of the game here; in Jianshui Ancient Town, for instance, the Su Yang Qing She Homestay on Zitao Street provides a lush, absolutely atmospheric backdrop for baking, tea making and flower arrangement classes.
