The ASEAN community-based tourism standards: looking beyond certification

This paper reports findings from an opportunity study on the appropriateness of implementing community-based tourism standards (CBTS) certification through the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) criteria, as a way to improve sustainable tourism provision in the region. Framed by critical reflections on community-based tourism (CBT) literature and existing sustainable tourism standards (STS) practices, qualitative research consisting of interviews with six key industry experts provided core insights into a number of CBTS’ implementation challenges. Findings indicate the main hindering factors for the implementation of CBTS to be the lack of adequate governance, limited funding and insufficient community capacity. The study concluded that although at the moment the full implementation of CBTS as a certification programme would be premature, ASEAN-CBTS’ criteria are a useful benchmarking and strategic planning tool for local communities, which would eventually lead to improved CBT benefits, standards and performance in the region. At the same time, this paper argues that aspects including CBT competitiveness and service delivery need to be tackled first to create fruitful grounding for CBT certification

Homestay Tourism and the Commercialization of the Rural Home in Thailand

Despite its growing importance to the domestic tourism market in Thailand, and its pertinence to community-based forms of tourism generally, homestay tourism remains a neglected topic. The purpose of this paper is to explore the implications of successful participation in homestay tourism in Thailand. Based on in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 30 residents of Mae Kampong, a well-known homestay village located in the northern Thai province of Chiang Mai, this paper argues that success in the context of homestay tourism is a double-edged sword, because even when communities succeed in operating a homestay program, this success comes at the price of diminished authenticity, greater dependence on tourism, and enhanced social and economic inequalities. Notwithstanding such challenges, rural communities will continue to respond to tourist demand for novelty and authenticity by commercializing their homes and offering homestay experiences that deliver glimpses of rural life to curious guests