As it has been in recent times, a few of the experiences that motivate travelers the most are heritage, natural environment, art and crafts, history of the land, culture-rituals, language, customs, and cultures of people in other lands. These are all things that travelers seek to learn about when they travel. The opportunity to witness and experience with other people how they live, think, and engage with ambience exerts an exciting and lively draw. This is because of the vitality of the experience. Tourists want to get a feel for the local people’s arts, architecture, cuisine, costume, music, painting, sculpture, celebrations and festivals, and their rituals. Authentic cultural attractions might be things like cuisine, food habits, drink, entertainment, or other forms of hospitality. Tourists want to experience all of these things.
The purpose of travel has always been to discover different cultures and ways of life. People’s ways of life as well as their level of living have been drastically altered as a result of the development of new technology and the urbanization of society. A significant portion of the population formerly residing in rural and outlying locations is currently making the trek into metropolitan and urban regions in search of better work prospects and also to improve their quality of life. However, the metropolitan way of life is unable to offer the chance to unwind in peaceful settings away from the noise and bustle of the city. People are encouraged to take vacations and relocate to more peaceful regions so they may experience a different side of life as a result of this. Some of the reasons for the increase in tourism include the increase in discretionary income, the opportunity to spend time with loved ones, and the decrease in family size.
It is possible to preserve socioeconomic, environmental, and cultural resources through community-based tourism, such as homestays. Homestays focus equally on maximizing the use of local resources and on the regeneration of tourism-related goods. Home Stay is an accommodation option in which a visitor books a room at the house of a person who lives outside of their own local community. This gives the traveler the opportunity to experience a new way of life, a genuine culture, or even a foreign language. The local host community makes available to visitors their fully furnished accommodations along with a genuine, down-to-earth kind of hospitality that is representative of the area’s natural environment. The infrastructure, including facilities, living space, and so on, is shared with the tourists in order to provide them with the opportunity to experience a home-like welcome. The offering is typically packed with meals, useful products, and sometimes even the opportunity to participate in the recipient’s local festivals so that it might be more of an experience for them. Homestay packages can be carefully customized to meet the preferences of every person, taking into account the length of their stay or even extended or lengthy stays, unless the host specifies otherwise.
Homestay tourism is becoming increasingly popular in a variety of countries; it provides genuine social depth to the traveler’s experience. Homestays are an appealing alternative tourist product that might be a good choice for a country that does not have the resources to spend extensively on its infrastructure but which has a great deal of tourism-related riches to offer in its more isolated villages. When you stay at a homestay, the money you spend goes straight into the community’s economy. The more we invest in the economy of the surrounding area, the simpler it will be for the people who live there to maintain their traditional ways of life, especially the ones that are environmentally friendly. In addition, one of the most effective methods for enhancing one’s linguistic abilities is to engage in conversation and activities in the target language. Because of this, staying at a homestay gives you the opportunity to practice your language abilities in a setting that is more similar to real life.
I was able to personally experience it when I travelled to Banyuwangi and stayed at the Banana Homestay there. The hosts of our homestay, Fryda and her husband, had a lot of experience with people coming from different parts of the world, and they were able to interact with us in an incredible way. It is not always easy to strike up conversations with strangers when you first arrive in a new location. It might be considerably more difficult if you are doing the traveling by yourself. Some people believe that traveling on one’s own is the most enjoyable way to see the world because of the sense of independence and autonomy it affords. When you get to a new place, it’s always reassuring to stay with a local who is familiar with the lay of the land. This is true even if traveling is undeniably an excellent way to experience the world. When you stay in someone’s house, you’ll get the opportunity to meet fascinating people, exchange life stories and experiences, and learn about the location through the eyes of the natives who live there. In addition to this, they will introduce you to other individuals and assist you in creating joyful memories throughout your trip.