Retna Hidayah, Rohaslinda Ramele, Sativa, Dwi Wulandari
This research aims to provide a comparative analysis of community-based tourism and rural homestays in Indonesia and Malaysia to improve the efficacy of homestay programs, promote greater cross-cultural understanding, and benefit local communities economically. It does this by identifying best practices and areas for improvement. Primary and secondary data collection approaches were used in the study. Interviews with pertinent agencies and homestays owners were done in addition to field trips to determine the programs and homestay operations that served as the primary source of data. The Ministry of Tourism in both nations will be evaluating regulations and guidelines to gather secondary data. Data was subjected to content and theme analysis. The study comes to the conclusion that although both Indonesia and Malaysia have created successful models for homestay programs that include the community and are sustainable, there are clear distinctions between their strategies and results. Although Malaysia's organized, government-backed model guarantees engaged community participation and encourages sustainable behaviors, it runs the risk of becoming overly dependent on government programs. Greater flexibility and cultural authenticity are made possible by Indonesia's decentralized, community-driven approach, however regional consistency in community engagement and sustainability practices is a difficulty. © 2025 Author(s).
Department of Architecture, Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta, Yogyakarta, Indonesia; College of Built Environment, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Shah Alam, Malaysia; Department of Art and Design Education, Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
