Airbnb to invest 68 million baht to support sustainable, inclusive tourism projects in Asia-Pacific

Monday 13 November 2017 15:09
Airbnb empowering hospitality entrepreneurs across APEC member economies

? Boosted economies by 952 billion baht in 2016

? Supported 370,000 jobs in 2016

Today at the APEC CEO Summit in Da Nang, Airbnb—the world's leading community-driven hospitality company—announced it will invest 68 million baht through 2020 to promote and support innovative tourism projects throughout Asia-Pacific.

This commitment is part of Airbnb's vision to strengthen communities through healthy tourism and empower hospitality entrepreneurs across the region.

The fund will be available to organizations—including destination marketing organizations, NGOs, non-profit agencies and community social groups—in need of financial support for innovative tourism projects.

The announcement was made today by Nathan Blecharczyk, Airbnb Co-Founder, CSO and Chairman of China at the APEC CEO Summit in Da Nang, during a panel discussion on the 'New Job Creators'.

""Airbnb is dedicated to empowering people and communities through healthy tourism, and we have a long tradition of supporting local projects in Asia-Pacific,"" said Nathan. ""We're excited to continue these efforts and support APEC's goal of driving sustainable and inclusive tourism to Asia-Pacific economies.""

Empowering hospitality entrepreneurs

New data shared today also highlights how Airbnb is empowering hospitality entrepreneurs across APEC member economies through healthy travel—authentic, affordable experiences that distribute the economic benefits to more people and more places, and that occur through use of people's existing resources.

New data shows that the Airbnb community boosted APEC economies by 952 billion baht and supported 370,000 jobs across 116 APEC cities in 2016. In the past 12 months, 55 million guest arrivals to APEC member economies were made on Airbnb, while Airbnb hosts in APEC member economies earned about 272 million baht during the same time period.

Bringing APEC member economies together

Data shared today also shows how Airbnb is driving sustainable, inclusive growth through tourism and bringing APEC member economies closer together through travel—a top organizational priority for APEC.

A comparison of Airbnb guest arrivals in 2016 to overall Euromonitor-calculated arrivals that year shows Airbnb already accounting for significant percentages of international arrivals in a number of APEC economies. In terms of international travelers in 2016, Airbnb accounted for at least 5 percent of all arrivals at six APEC member economies: the US (5 percent), Canada (6 percent), Chinese Taipei (8 percent), Australia (11 percent), New Zealand (14 percent), and Japan (15 percent).

APEC member economies that have seen at least 100-percent year-over-year growth in inbound guest arrivals on Airbnb include: Korea (104 percent), 2018 APEC Leaders' Summit host Papua New Guinea (110 percent), the Philippines (133 percent), 2017 APEC Leaders' Summit host Vietnam (154 percent), Brunei (170 percent), Mexico (175 percent), Malaysia (179 percent), 2019 APEC Leaders' Summit host Chile (195 percent), and China (268 percent).

NOTES TO EDITORS

All estimates of Airbnb's economic output and the numbers of jobs supported come from the report, ""Airbnb's Global Support to Local Economies: Output and Employment,"" by NERA Economic Consulting. The NERA authors estimate the output and employment supported based on the volume of visitors and host earnings in 200 cities across the world, as well as results from an internal AIrbnb survey of host and guest spending. Using the IMPLAN model, the authors estimate the total direct and indirect economic output associated with Airbnb travel in each local economy. Estimates at the country and regional level are based on aggregations of the city-level figures.

You can read more about 'Airbnb and APEC: Closing tourism gaps with healthy travel' here.