Correspondence: Ghazali Musa, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia. E-mail: ghaz8zz@gmail.com

¹is an associate professor, and an MBBS and a PhD holder, in the Faculty of Business and Accountancy, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur. His research interests are in scuba diving, health and backpacker tourism.

²is an associate professor and a PhD in Tourism and is currently attached to the UUM College of Arts and Sciences, Universiti Utara Malaysia, Kedah. Her research interests are in community-based tourism especially in the form of rural tourism.

³is a research assistant and PhD candidate in the Faculty of Business and Accountancy, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur.

Received 1 October 2009; Revised 1 October 2009; Published online 2 November 2009.

Abstract

Tourism involving home-stays is one of the Malaysian government's key efforts to diversify its cultural tourism product. Tourists to the programme are adopted by their foster families experience a more traditional life in Malay villages. Using a diary method, this study examines the experiential aspects of home-stay holidays among domestic students in Kampung Lonek. A total of 19 diaries were content-analyzed using NVivo, which is a qualitative data analysis (QDA) computer software package produced by QSR International. Based on the findings, the home-stay experiential model is developed which explains the different phases of travel experience and their components. The on-site experience reveals three distinct dimensions: 'environmental experience', 'activity, culture and knowledge experience' and 'human interaction experience'. The study discusses the differences between Chinese and Malay students in their home-stay experience. The article highlights its methodological, theoretical and managerial contributions.