Homework Before Homestay - the Importance of Host-Training for Sustainable Tourism Development

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

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

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

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).

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

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.

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?

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

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.

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).

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

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.

“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.

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

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

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.

“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).

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

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.

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)

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

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.

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).

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

the research was all expressing concernment of the LGUs commitment for tourism development (Orcullo, Peluchi Kapirig, Gerard).

Regional : Provincial: Community: Department Bohol Local of Tourism Tourism Government (DOT) Office (BTO) Unit (LGU)

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).

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.

“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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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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

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

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

III

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

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

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.