The Malaysian Homestay Program and the Japanese Minshuku: A comparative study

This paper discusses the characteristics of rural tourism in Malaysia and Japan by comparing the Malaysia Homestay Program and the minshuku. Japan has been chosen as a comparative case study since Japanese tourists are the second-highest number of foreign tourists visited the Malaysian Homestay Program until 2018. Findings have shown that the Malaysia Homestay Program was derived from the English bed-and-breakfast, while the minshuku has been influenced by the European farm-stay. Although they differ in concepts, organizations, regulations, and community participation, both have contributed to the development of the tourism sectors in both countries. Keywords; Malaysia Homestay Program; minshuku; lifestyle experience; urban-rural interchange eISSN: 2398-4287 © 2020. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BYNC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/ebpj.v5iSI2.2525.