Homestay Adventures: Exploring homestays and culinary experiences in Lower Mustang, Nepal
By Madeleine Kiær, Emma Erikstad Rutherfurd and Vilde Aurora Halle Tvedten
Spring 2023
This project aims to foster sustainable and culturally respectful tourism in the rural communities of Lower Mustang, Nepal, focusing on the study of homestays. Furthermore, it attempts to facilitate cultural exchange, allowing individuals from various backgrounds to participate in local culinary activities. We have dedicated the project to understanding tourists’ and local hosts’ preferences and needs, finding similarities and differences in expectations and perspectives. Simultaneously, the project is committed to maintaining the cultural integrity of these communities. This involves addressing challenges related to increased tourism, such as avoiding overtourism and preserving local traditions and lifestyles.
Last semester, Nora Kastellet and Erle Drejer submitted their master’s thesis, “Mustang Village Trail: Explore Lower Mustang through hikes and experiences hand-picked by locals”. The following autumn, we tested and iterated their solution, mainly focusing on homestays and culinary experiences. We aimed to understand and bridge the gap between tourists and local hosts, which is why we had a formative month-long trip to the Himalayan mountains. Our work involved exploring the region’s cultural heritage and integrating it with design methods to foster cultural exchange and maintain the authenticity of the local communities. The motivation behind our project was to support rural communities in Lower Mustang by promoting sustainable and culturally respectful tourism. Since the villages have had students come and do research many times, they were eager to see concrete results. Therefore, we aimed to find solutions so that we could quickly transfer ownership to the local communities. They should sustainably balance tourism development and preserve local traditions.
Our approach combined desk and field research with innovative design strategies. Before travelling, we tested last year’s solution and researched homestays and culinary experiences. During our field trip, we did ethnographic studies and a load of guerrilla interviews and testing, and as tourists easily empathising with other tourists, we applied an inside-out approach. We have analysed homestays, assessing hosts’ and tourists’ motivations, preferences and expectations. By integrating principles from user-centred design and innovation of meaning, we have strived to make our project valuable for both local communities and tourists.
Understanding that one solution is not enough to address all challenges, we have designed a small ecosystem of solutions that complement each other. Since the SAMAJ project is soon ending, we aimed to develop something tangible. Therefore, we suggest a four-part solution that solves different problems, but when combined, they collectively improve the overall tourism experience. Our system of solutions seeks to make interactions between tourists and local hosts easier and more accessible. They also aim to foster deeper cultural understanding and appreciation among tourists while providing sustainable economic benefits to the local communities.
