When Toune Sisouphanthavong embarked on her seven-year effort to restore Maison Dalabua in the Luang Prabang UNESCO World Heritage site, she made sure to respect UNESCO’s operational guidelines – even if it dragged the project out.
“That’s why our project took so long—it took seven years,” she explained. “The builders didn’t use big equipment, and we tried to replicate the traditional methods local people use to build houses.”
The Maison Dalabua story reflects both the opportunities and challenges faced by alternative accommodation providers in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS). The region’s “rich variety of traditional and alternative accommodations” represent an opportunity for regional tourism – highlighted as such in the Greater Mekong Subregion Tourism Strategy 2030.
Driven by rising demand for more local, experience-driven stays, these non-traditional lodging options are expanding across countries such as Thailand, Viet Nam, Lao PDR, and Cambodia.
However, the flourishing Maison Dalabua aside, most alternative-accommodations owners lack access to financing, insurance, and other professional resources. These lodgings tend to may not always be fully integrated into formal regulatory frameworks – which can present challenges for stakeholders in developing coordinated policy approaches.
Growth Drivers Behind the Mekong’s Alternative Stay Sector
The sector is on a definite upswing: booked listings, occupancy rates, average stays and year-on-year revenues all increased between 2022 and 2023 in most GMS destinations. So what’s driving this growth?
First, alternative accommodations offer travelers greater flexibility and variety than traditional hotels. Visitors can choose from family-run guesthouses, community homestays, luxury tented camps, heritage boutique hotels, glamping sites, houseboats, and farm stays.
These options often place guests closer to local communities and landscapes: a strong appeal given tourists’ increasing attraction toward experiential and sustainable travel.
Second, the sector provides a relatively accessible entry point for micro-entrepreneurs. “Alternative accommodations provide a low-cost way for micro-entrepreneurs to enter the tourism economy,” explains tourism consultant Steven Schipani.
“A spare room, apartment, or second home can now be marketed to the whole world very inexpensively using online platforms where small entrepreneurs can list their properties and capture some revenue.”
This leads us to our third point: digital platforms have dramatically expanded the reach of these operators. Digital technologies have therefore become a critical enabler of growth for alternative accommodations. Online travel agencies and booking platforms connect small property owners to global travel markets, allowing even remote guesthouses to attract international visitors.
Policy, Partnerships, and Training for Growth
Recognizing the potential of alternative accommodations, stakeholders across the Mekong region are implementing strategies to support their development.
Capacity building is taking root, through training programs developed to help micro- and small-business operators build skills in digital marketing, social media management, e-commerce, and online travel agency platforms.
Global nonprofit Planeterra, for instance, hosts an online learning platform with 50+ modules on running a successful tourism enterprise, allowing remote communities to access professional training at their own pace.
“Any community-led tourism experience can sign up and access these learning resources,” explains Priyanka Singh, Asia-Pacific Manager at Planeterra. “By signing up, they have access not only to our online resources, but our team of CTDs – who provide mentorship and coaching and organize quarterly or as-needed learning sessions.”
Regional initiatives are also supporting this shift. For example, in 2025, MTCO, in collaboration with Agoda, implemented a capacity-building programme across the GMS to help micro- and small-scale accommodation providers strengthen their digital capabilities and connect with global travel markets through online platforms.
Partnerships between communities and tourism organizations are helping improve market access as well. Some initiatives connect community-based tourism enterprises with international tour operators, ensuring a steady flow of visitors and revenue while promoting responsible travel practices.
Digital platforms tailored to community tourism are also emerging, allowing hosts to manage bookings and showcase sustainability credentials to environmentally conscious travelers.
“We have developed the Hello Local platform to enhance digitization in local community tourism,” explains Sappawat Kantamara, Head of Strategic Marketing and Sustainability at Thai destination management company Find Folk. “This platform connects travelers with authentic community-based tourism experiences, ensuring local benefits while providing a seamless digital interface for both visitors and hosts.”
Finally, sustainability measures are being introduced by many boutique properties, in the form of zero-waste policies, eliminating single-use plastics and implementing composting systems.
For example, Thai luxury tented camp Visama Mae Chan is reforesting five acres of property to attract indigenous bird and wildlife, and ensures that 90% of consumption is sourced locally, including buying organic produce from a hill tribe girls’ farm with no chemical ingredients.
Eco-friendly B&B Harmony@Huailan, for their part, uses reclaimed wood for construction and relies on solar power and sustainable water and waste management systems. This is all intentional, says proprietor Premruethai “Dtor” Tosermkit: “We keep some elements of our design and gardens a little raw, so you can feel a vivid connection with nature and the local community.”
From a policy level, visitor management strategies – such as limiting vehicle access in heritage zones or directing travelers toward less-visited destinations – are also being used to address overtourism and preserve the tranquil environments that attract guests to alternative accommodations in the first place.
A promising future for alternative stays
As tourism in the Mekong region evolves, alternative accommodations are likely to play an increasingly important role. Their ability to support small entrepreneurs and offer distinctive travel experiences aligns closely with broader goals of inclusive and sustainable tourism development.
These trends reflect broader priorities under regional cooperation efforts to promote inclusive and sustainable tourism across the GMS.
With the right support, alternative accommodations could become one of the defining strengths of the Mekong tourism landscape – providing visitors with authentic local experiences while helping communities capture the economic benefits of tourism.
