Tourist Motivational Perspective Analysis of Homestay in Banaue, Ifugao: Basis for a Proposed Marketing Model By. Mr. John Michael C. Ibarra, CHP, MSHRM

ABSTRACT Homestay today is on the rise and has become one of many tourist attractions in the world. In some countries, the rise of homestay accommodation paved the way for local and foreign tourists to experience a multi ethnic life situation with cultural experiences and economic well beings of the local people through homestay program. The context of homestay tourism is described as a double-edge 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. This study focused on four motivational perspectives of tourists in staying at traditional hut homestays of Banaue, Ifugao. Tourist motivation leads to better goals by establishing the right picture of tourist satisfaction focusing on the business which later increases business success. Descriptive method was used to describe the demographic and sociographic profile of the tourists. Qualitative and quantitative methods were used. A self-made survey questionnaire was administered to 135 tourists and interview was conducted among tourists, homestay owners, and managers. Findings indicated that the tourists were extremely motivated in terms of humanistic perspective or hierarchy of needs. Moreover, social perspectives were important for the tourists especially on the sense of belongingness with the host family. In essence, this study shed light on the motivational perspectives of tourists which led to the proposed experiential Ifugao culture tourism marketing model for homestay program. Keywords Behavioural, Humanistic, Cognitive, Social, Satisfaction, Traditional Hut