THAO Journal

1.                   Introduction

The growing work pressure has made travelling as the best way to relieve stress in a society pursuing high efficiency [1], and recreational activities and tourism has steadily become part of modern life [2]. Based on the World Tourism Organization data, concerning global tourism market, there are approximately seven hundred million people travelling abroad every year. The scale of global tourism sector including both domestic and international tour takes up over 10% of the global GDP (Gross Domestic Product), which has reached an amount of 3.5 trillion US dollars. Tourism 2020 Vision, which was published by World Tourism Organization in 2001, also indicated that the number of tourists in 2020 would reach 1.56 billion persons, showing a growth of 1.76 times comparing to the 565 million persons in 1995 [3].

As for Macau, the 2016 Yearbook of Statistics shows that there were 21,998,100 tourist’s arrivals in 2006 and 30,950,300 in 2016. In 2006, 10,682,700 tourists stayed overnight while 15,703,600 did so in 2016. The statistic reveals that the total numbers of tourists and tourist overnight grew yearly. However, Macau’s homestay business is illegitimate, so visitors majorly stay in hotels. Macau’s hotel occupancy is 86.4% in November, 2017 [4], but the accommodation price is quite high. If Macau government can legalize the homestay business, not only can tourists have more accommodation options, but it can drive the economy.

Hing, McCabe, Lewis and Leiper [5] Indicate that the homestays turned into an emerging sector with great potential. And it could be the local culture endorser [6]. Homestays are usually located near significant culture, history or nature attractions [7]. It got positive implications covering increasing individual’s income, improving the living environment for local residents driving relevant industry development [8]. Macau got Portuguese-influenced cultures and European-style architecture, which can combine with homestay to develop in-depth tourism here, which, would allow tourists to learn more about the local Macau’s customs and cultures.

The homestays and hotels vary in their functions, business model and natures [9-17]. Yen et al. [10] indicate that the greatest difference between the two is the connection with local environment and communities. Hotel business has more sufficient funds and focuses more on facilities and standardized services. Homestays are more of side business and relatively financially insufficient. They generally require the surrounding environment to introduce nearby natural and cultural resources, provide various experiences of local lives and thrive with nearby communities.

The Feasibility Study on Family Hostel by Macau Government Tourism Office (2014) revealed that 62.5% interviewees agree with the family hostel concept [18], which means that, even though the present regulations and complementary facilities of Macau government do not reach the conditions for developing this industry, the residents do have expectations. Hence, if the Macau homestay business is enacted into law in the future, it must have a set of evaluation index. Base on this ground, the purposes of this research are: (1) to construct an evaluation index for Macau homestay from both academic and pragmatic perspectives; (2) to analyze the key factors valued by academics, homestay proprietors and consumers and compare the differences; (3) the results will be provided for Macau government as a noteworthy evaluation reference when homestays become legalized in the future.

2.                   Literature Review

2.1.              Definition

There is no customary name for homestay, for instance, it is “B&B” (Breakfast and Bed) in Great Britain, “B&B” or “Inn” in the United States, “Pension” or “Minshuku” in Japan, and “Homestay” in Taiwan. “Homestay” is used in this research. Based on the definitions in past researches [9, 12, 19-25] and Macau’s current conditions, this research defines it as “accommodation leased to tourists, which are spare rooms of private dwellings or those of vacant tenements rebuilt to complex buildings”.

2.2.              Feature, Function and Category of Homestay

Homestay is a choice of accommodation different from hotels and blends in with local abundant environment resources, which satisfy consumers’ expectation for getting close to nature and experiencing local customs [26]. Homestay business got market niches between commercial hotels and personal, family-style private guest houses [27]. This research has organized homestay’s features, functions and types as in (Table 1-3).

2.3.              Related Researches

Keling and Entebang [28] have advanced a series of innovation characteristics, namely: products, participants and principals applied by the entrepreneurs. The findings indicate that innovation constructs are strongly correlated with Dayak homestay business performance. The findings of Rasoolimanesh, Dahalan, and Jaafar [29] show a strong positive effect for perceived value on the satisfaction of homestay guests. The purpose of Kontogeorgopoulos, Churyen, and Duangsaeng [30] is to explore the implications of successful participation in homestay tourism in Thailand. They advance 10 standards (Accommodation, Food, Safety, Hospitality, Tour programs, Natural resources and the environment, Culture, Creation of value for community products, Homestay management, and Public relations) and 31 indicators. Biswakarma [31] focuses on measuring tourist satisfaction towards home stay. They advance 5 factors (Amenities & Safety, Reception, Local Cuisine & Accommodation, Local Life style & Costumes, and Cultural Performance) and 22 items.

3.                   Construct the Framework

3.1.              Preliminary Framework

After reviewing the references, it is considered that the research framework of Hu, Wang and Wang [32] has covered aspects and criteria mentioned in the past researches; that is, it is more comprehensive. Therefore, this research took it as the preliminary framework, including 5 aspects and 30 criteria as shown in (Table 4).

3.2.              Final Framework

This study invited four experts (one Macau academic and three Taiwan homestay proprietors) (Table 5) to take part in the interview and then constructed the final framework. In the interview, the Macau academic is a native and familiar with the local environment. He thinks that Macau is pretty small, and the land is expensive, which implies the homestays may not have more room for gardens and parking space; therefore, he suggests removing the criteria: Greenization and uniqueness of the garden design (A7) and Parking space (C2). He also thinks that Macau’s public transportation is convenient, so Pick-up service (offering free pick-up service) (B2) can be excluded. The study adopts these suggestions and the final framework includes 5 aspects and 27 criteria (Table 6).

3.3.              Criteria Relevancy

After completing the final framework, two experts (Table 7) were invited to fulfill the criteria relevancy (the influence of column criteria on row criteria). The level of influence scores from 0 to 100. “0” means no influence at all and “100” is total influence. After the two experts finished scoring, the means were calculated, and four relevancy charts were created, covering relevancy score 60 (included) and over, 70 (included) and over, 80 (included) and over, and 90 (included) and over. Taking the relevance chart scoring over 60 as the example, if the influence score of column criteria on row criteria is 60 or more, it means they are relevant, but if the score is under 60, it means they are irrelevant. Such rule is also applicable for the other 3 charts. After completing relevancy charts, the research found that, only in the charts scoring over 60 (included), each criterion could generate weights and tend stable (after self-multiplication, the weights are consistent). Based on this ground, the score of 60 or over was set to be the threshold as shown in (Table 8).

4.                   Methodology and Research Design

4.1.             ANP (Analytic Network Process)

In the real environment, there are many decision-making problems cannot just take the pure hierarchical relationship to construct the framework, because the high- and the low-level element may exist the dependence relationship and interaction [33]. As a result, Saaty [33] advanced ANP which has dependence and feedback, and in 2001 [34], he recommended using ANP to solve the problem of interdependent relationships among the criteria or alternatives. In ANP, when nodes correspond to levels or components, that means there exists the network feedback in a system [35].

The elements in the nodes may influence some or all elements in other nodes. In the network, all the nodes can be source nodes, intermediate nodes or sink nodes. The relationship in the network is represented by the arc and the direction of arrow means dependence relationship [33]. When the two nodes have the external dependence, it will be represented by the two-way arrow; the nodes in the elements have the internal dependence, it will be represented by the circle arc [36].

ANP has four steps [33, 37]: 1) Establish the model and the framework; 2) Do the pairwise comparison to get the priority vector; 3) Construct the super matrix; 4) Choose the best alternative. In our study, we do not have the alternatives; therefore, we just finish from step 1 to 3.

4.2.              Research Design

4.2.1.         Object, Scope, and Sampling

The localities this research studied are about Taiwan and Japan as shown in Table 9 for Macau’s future homestay business models. Currently, there is no legalized homestay in Macau, so this research could not examine the homestay guests here. The samples are students of City University of Macau (majorly non-native students) were taken as the consumer samples in this research, which can be the significant information for learning what criteria consumers value when Macau homestay business becomes legalized in the future. This research also distributed questionnaires to academics and proprietors to compare their differences from consumers. 5 were given to academics and 4 were valid. 3 were sent to proprietors and 2 were valid. 109 were distributed to consumers and 87 were valid.

4.2.2.         Questionnaire Design

The questionnaire is separated into two parts: 1) ANP Questionnaire: Do the pairwise comparison of aspect/criterion which has dependence; 2) Demographic variable: Sex, Age, Marriage Status, Job, Education, and Average Monthly Income.

4.2.3.         Validity

This research constructed the preliminary framework from literature review, and then built the final framework through expert interview. Therefore, it is with content validity and expert validity.

5.                   Results and Analysis

5.1.              Analyze the Aspects and the Criteria

The Super Decisions program was adopted in this research to make sure the value of each comparison matrix’s C.I. (Consistency Index) is less than 0.1 [35]. Then, Super Decisions program was used for obtaining Unweighted Supermatrix, Weighted Supermatrix, and Limiting Supermatrix of each questionnaire. For easy-reading, only the values of Limiting Supermatrix representing the results are demonstrated in this paper.  At last, Arithmetic Average was applied to the values of Limiting Supermatrix to get the average weights and ranking.

5.2.              Aspect

For Academics, Homestay Proprietors, Customers and the Overall, they all values Homestay Operation and Management (D) the most. In addition, Academics and Homestay Proprietors’ second important aspects are Surroundings of the Building and Features (A) and Homestay Geist and Community Co-prosperity (E), and Customers and the Overall are about Surroundings of the Building and Features (A) and Homestay Facilities (C) (Table 10).

5.3.              Criterion

For Academics, Homestay Proprietors, Customers and the Overall, the criteria they value are almost the same. The difference only lies in ranking as follows: To incorporate the local heritage and landscape elements into design (A5), Service attitude (ex. reception service, to treat lodgers with voice of the customers) (B1), Information service (ex. local hot spot, tour route planning) (B2), Homestay features (ex. aboriginal culture) (D6), Overall ambience forming (D7), Degree of interaction between hosts and lodgers (E1), Arranging local experiential activities and food (E3) and Promoting and preserving local cultural resources (E6) (Table 11).

6.                   Conclusion and Suggestion

6.1.              Conclusion

6.1.1.         Aspects

For Academics, Homestay Proprietors, Customers and the Overall, their each top priority is Homestay Operation and Management (D), which means the homestay proprietors’ management abilities and strategies are quite important, such as how to utilize their marketing combinations to make their business more competitive. In addition, Academics and Homestay Proprietors think that the second important aspects are Surroundings of the Building and Features (A) and Homestay Geist and Community Co-prosperity (E), and Customers and the Overall are Surroundings of the Building and Features (A) and Homestay Facilities (C).This indicates that the difference between the two is that the former focuses more on the interaction among homestay hosts and consumers and hopes homestays can drive local economy while the later values more homestays’ facilities. Such results meet part of the research of Hu et al. [32].

6.1.2.         Criteria

For Academics, Homestay Proprietors, Customers and the Overall, the criteria they value the most important are majorly the same. The difference only lies in ranking as follows: To incorporate the local heritage and landscape elements into design (A5), Service attitude (ex. reception service, to treat lodgers with voice of the customers) (B1), Information service (ex. local hot spot, tour route planning) (B2), Homestay features (ex. aboriginal culture) (D6), Overall ambience forming (D7), Degree of interaction between hosts and lodgers (E1), Arranging local experiential activities and food (E3) and Promoting and preserving local cultural resources (E6).

6.1.3.         Suggestion

The suggestions below are proposed based on feasible pragmatic consideration.

a.                   Taking the current regulations as the basis to build homestays ones. Based on current Macau regulations, this research suggests the homestay business can take Land Law, Safety Regulations for Fire Prevention, Hygiene Standards, and so on as the references to draw up applicable regulations. In addition, this research has found the Ordinance 83/96/M stipulates that accommodation with lodging and breakfast but without dining service is deemed as residence. Such concept meets the definition of homestay, so when drawing up the regulations, Macau government can refer this ordinance as the basis.

b.                   Buying up vacant tenements and merging in with shopping complex. Macau government or conglomerates can acquire vacant tenements and transfer them into homestays. Such action can not only increase the house utilization rate but drive the economy. Meanwhile, through the interviews with Taiwan homestay proprietors, it was found that they all agreed the idea that homestay business indeed can stimulate local economy. Furthermore, this research proposes three design ideas for vacant tenements: (1) they can be only renovated as homestay buildings, only for lodging purpose; (2) the ground floor can be designed as public facilities, such reading rooms, fitness rooms, lounges and so on; (3) the ground floor can be commercial venues, such as supermarkets or restaurants, to increase the total revenues.

c.                    Win-win for official-academics and industry-academics. Some educational institutes in Macau provide tourism programs, such as City University of Macau and Institute for Tourism Studies. So, under the circumstance that Macau government or conglomerates buy and manage the properties, the homestays can provide internships, and students can obtain more practical experiences, carrying out the spirit of “learning from doing, practicing while learning”. Students can acquire academic credits in this way. Consequently, this can achieve win-win condition in both official-academics and industry-academics.

d.                   Job creation. During the tenement renovation, the preliminary work needs spatial designers and construction professionals. After the renovation completed, there will be job demand for homestay agents and cleaning staffs, which would create more job opportunities for local residents and further drive the economy.

e.                    Setting up the marketing strategies. Macau government and conglomerates can combine homestay business with tourist attractions as tour package to raise Macau’s visibility and publicity. For example, the Portuguese culture can be the main theme for developing more extensive packages and products.

f.                    Opening up free market. There are many black-market homestays in Macau at the moment. Therefore, this research believes that, once the homestays are legalized, not only can local residents’ income be boosted but the lodgers’ safety can be guaranteed.

The Feasibility Study on Family Hostel by Macau Government Tourism Office (2014) revealed that, 33% do not agree homestay business. Among the interviewees not supporting homestay business, 70% have major concern over the social order and security issue [18]. Moreover, if the competitiveness is to be enhanced, homestay business can set as free market, which is the self-employed proprietors apply the approvals and run the business individually. In addition, in the future, when Macau government evaluating qualified homestays, the evaluation criteria that this research proposes can be the basis. This research has classified the criteria into two groups: the essential and the additional, as shown in (Table 12). 5-point scale can apply to each criterion for overall evaluation, 1 as the worst and 5 as the best. If a homestay meets the qualificatory score, such as 70, it will obtain approval and get the license to run the business. The license can be set for certain length of time, such as 2 years, and be renewed after re-evaluation.

6.1.4.         Contribution

Macau’s homestay business is not legitimate at present. Thus, the greatest contribution of this research is that it has built feasible evaluation criteria for Macau’s homestay evaluation reference for the future. The proposed plans are also viable strategies when Macau planning homestay business.

6.1.5.         Limitation and Future Work

The biggest limitation of this research is that homestay business in Macau is illegitimate. Therefore, the in-depth interviews with Macau homestay proprietors could not be carried out and sampling and investigation on Macau homestay consumers could not be run either. This research suggests that the directions for future studies can be: (1) expanding the sampling scope, such as hotels, to compare their differences and (2) adding more aspects, such as satisfaction or loyalty, to deepen and broaden the research.

Table 1: Homestay Feature.

Table 2: Homestay Function.

Table 3: Homestay Category.

Table 4: Preliminary Framework.

Table 5: Experts’ Information (Construct the Final Framework).

Table 6: Final Framework.

Table 7: Experts’ Information (Construct the Criteria Relevancy).

Table 8: Criteria Relevancy.

Table 9: Visited and Inspected Homestay.

Table 10: The Weight and the Ranking of the Aspect

Table 11: The Weight and the Ranking of the Criterion.

Table 12: Essential/Additional Criterion.

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