Abstract:
ABSTRACT
Tourism is a fast growing industry and in some countries this is the main source of income.
According to the UNWTO, "Tourism comprises the activities of persons traveling to and staying
in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure,
business and other purposes”. Sri Lanka also has a leading tourism industry and is the third largest
export earner in recent years. Although severely threatened by the corona virus, it can be
considered an industry that can recover quickly. Despite the threats, the number of registered
lodges has steadily increased over the past two years. There is an increase in the number of small
enterprises, especially those associated with the tourism industry. The rising tide of
accommodation, such as Homestay, is a prime example of this. The SLTA defines this home stay
as “It is a community based tourism programme which is initiated with the objective of distributing
the tourism benefit to a fair cross section of the society by preparing houses/accommodation units
carrying various themes, bringing out Sri Lankan authenticity, located in various destinations
within Sri Lanka, with suitable quality standards befitting the purpose of accommodating tourists,
intending an interaction between the local community with the tourists giving opportunity to the
tourist to experience Sri Lankan way of life”. YouTube, one of the most popular platforms in the
world, can now be used by owners to incur large promotions for small businesses such as Home
Stay. This study identifies the potential for using Travel Vlogs on YouTube and identify the
challenges and opportunities involved. This research is adopting qualitative research methodology
underpinned by phenomenology research approach and, the population includes all the homestay
operators in the country and the communities they are located in. sample of this study will be the
homestay operators in Elle & Mirissa . as a sample size ,15 – 20 interviews will be taken from the
home stay operators in Ella and Mirissa. This study gathers information on the use of YouTube to
successfully popularize small business schemes such as Home Stay among travelers.
Keyword: Homestay, travel vlogs, YouTube, promotion
