Off the Beaten Track Destinations in APAC Experiencing Explosive Airbnb Growth

A man wearing a backpack walks down a stone staircase on a warm day.

Today, at the PATA Annual Summit in the Philippines, Airbnb announced new data that highlights how the Airbnb community is growing tourism in off-the-beaten-track destinations across Asia Pacific, and helping to disperse the benefits of tourism beyond big cities and major tourism hotspots.  

  • In the past year, 12 million guests have checked into an Airbnb listing in off-the-beaten-track destinations in Asia Pacific, a 70% growth rate year-over-year
  • There are now almost 500,000 Airbnb listings in these destinations
  • Airbnb’s community of hospitality entrepreneurs in these atypical destinations collectively earned nearly $1 billion through hosting on Airbnb in 2018.

These hospitality entrepreneurs — the home sharers, property & real estate developers, and small, independent and boutique hotel owners, who make up the Airbnb community — are increasingly turning to the Airbnb platform as a way to promote their unique listings to international travelers.

“As we look towards the next decade, the growing economies of Asia Pacific are going to be the engine that drives the growth of global travel, ” said Nathan Blecharczyk, Airbnb Co-Founder, CSO, and Chairman of Airbnb China. “As tourism in Asia Pacific grows, many governments in the region have set a goal of dispersing the benefits of tourism beyond the big cities and major tourism destinations. We’re incredibly proud that the Airbnb community is playing its role in making that goal a reality and helping diverse, and often under-resourced, communities benefit from tourism.”

In many countries around APAC, the Airbnb community is growing faster in off-the-beaten-track destinations than it is in big cities and tourism hotspots. In 2018, the countries with the fastest rate of growth in travel in these destinations on Airbnb were:

  1. China: 179.2%
  2. Vietnam: 110.8%
  3. Philippines: 100.2%
  4. Malaysia: 97.5%
  5. Korea: 92.8%

Airbnb is bringing the economic benefits to communities around the world that haven’t shared in these benefits in the past. With up to 97 percent of the listing price going directly to Airbnb hospitality entrepreneurs, and almost 50 percent of guests’ spending occurring within the neighborhoods where they stay, the financial benefits of tourism can be significant for atypical travel destinations.

Promoting Healthy Tourism Around the World

Airbnb shared new data this week at Airbnb’s first ‘New Destinations Summit’ in Igualada (Barcelona, Spain), highlighting the Airbnb community model’s positive impact on communities in Europe with no — or few — hotels.

Around half of municipalities in Catalonia, for example, have no hotels or other traditional accommodation options. But in almost 120 communities with no hotels in Catalonia, travel on Airbnb platform has helped boost the economy by €1.5 million.

In France – the most visited country in the world – around 90 percent of communities with fewer than 2,000 inhabitants also have no hotels or traditional accommodation options. However hosts on Airbnb have helped welcome 1.9 million visitors to these rural communities, which guests might otherwise have missed. While in Spain, guest arrivals to rural destinations with less than 2,000 inhabitants have increased by more than 130 percent in the last two years.

Airbnb is also partnering with a number of governments and community organizations in APAC to help promote off-the-beaten-track destinations and provide digital and hospitality skills training to potential hospitality entrepreneurs.

  • In India, our partnership with the Self-Employed Women’s Association of India (SEWA), one of the largest trade unions in India supporting women in rural areas, is helping to provide hospitality skills training to rural women and promote their listings to international guests. Some of our SEWA hosts have earned more in a month through hosting than their entire family’s typical annual income.
  • In Thailand, we have worked with the Ministry of Interior’s Department of Local Administration to train more than 100 local provincial officials on hospitality, hosting and compliance standards; and onboard existing homestays onto Airbnb’s global platform.

NOTES TO EDITORS

Markets studied exclusively for this report include: Australia, New Zealand, Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Mainland China, Japan, India, Sri Lanka.

Findings in this study are based on internal Airbnb data for the period January 1, 2018 to December 31, 2018. For this study, off-the-beaten-track destinations were defined using government terminology and definitions, as well as internal Airbnb data.