Home Stay Concept in Sri Lanka and its Impacts (With special reference to Padavigampola Home Stay Village)

Abstract

Home Stay is one type of accommodation sectors in tourism industry. It allows to tourists stay with local families in the destination and become familiar with local style. Padavigampola Village is situated in Rambukkana, Kegalle district, Sabaragamuwa Province. It is the first home stay village in Sri Lanka. The objectives of this research were to identify both positive and negative effects of the home stay project and giving recommendations to promote home stay concept furthermore. Field observations, interviews, questionnaires used as data collecting methods and those collected data were analyzed analytically because both qualitative and quantitative data were gathered during the study. Most of villagers had a good attitude about this project because of the positive benefits. Creating job opportunities, community development, generating income for villagers, improve quality of life and ensure environmental sustainability are some positive benefits. Comparing the outcome of home stay concept, benefits are abundant rather than the negative impacts. Establishing information centre, introducing new activities and new concepts for visitors, involving private sector, encouraging host community, regular monitoring and feedbacks, conducting awareness programs are some recommendations for improving positive effects and minimizing negative impacts for promoting Home Stay concept.