APEC and Airbnb: Supporting economic opportunity through travel dispersal

To mark the opening of the APEC Summit in San Francisco, Airbnb today released a report highlighting how Airbnb is contributing to APEC’s goals to promote cross-border travel in its member economies and expand economic opportunity to more people in more destinations. 

In 2023 and 2024, Airbnb plans to invest nearly $5 million to help new communities across the APEC member economies reap the benefits of tourism by partnering with organizations committed to heritage preservation, growing our Airbnb Entrepreneurship Academy to make it easier for more people to participate in the tourism economy, and supporting organizations that economically empower local communities. These investments include a new MOU in the Philippines to promote women’s entrepreneurship in tourism, and growing our tourism economic empowerment initiatives for women across APEC member economies, including capacity building and training in Mexico.

As global tourism recovers from the pandemic, these programs will help open economic opportunities to more communities that have not traditionally benefited from tourism. 

The economic benefits of more dispersed, sustainable travel  

The pandemic spurred changes in travel habits – domestic travel and extended rural stays helped disperse the economic benefits of tourism to communities that traditionally have not benefited from this activity. Many of these travel trends have endured– in the first nine months of 2023 more than 1,100 cities in APEC member economies welcomed their first guest via Airbnb.

Travel on Airbnb continues to be an key economic pathway for communities in APEC member economies. In 2022 alone:

• Hosts welcomed nearly 150 million Airbnb guest arrivals 
• Hosts earned nearly $30 billion in supplemental income 
• More than 450,000 people started hosting their home on Airbnb

In Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam, and Thailand, the number of nights booked on Airbnb doubled year-over-year in 2023. This activity has helped generate more than $125 billion in economic activity in 17 APEC member economies—including $70+ billion in labor income—and helped support an estimated 2 million jobs. 

Investments to promote more sustainable, dispersed travel 

Within the Asia-Pacific region non-urban tourism spending on Airbnb in 2022* grew approximately 88 percent from 2019 according to a report compiled by Oxford Economics, enabling a valuable economic contribution to rural and regional areas. To help more communities benefit from changing travel trends, Airbnb will continue to invest in partnerships and innovations to Airbnb’s products to help encourage travel to more rural areas and highlight local heritage. 

These new commitments build on existing work. In 2022, we launched our Historical Homes Category which now includes listings in more than 30 countries and regions, and categories such as Ryokan, Hanok, Kominka and Minsu. In addition, we’ve developed partnerships with UNESCO and other heritage organizations in Australia, Japan, Mexico, and elsewhere to help disperse the benefits of tourism to rural areas. This year, we also expanded the Airbnb Entrepreneurship Academy to introduce more individuals from diverse and underrepresented communities to hosting on the Airbnb platform in coordination with local organizations. 

We  look forward to continuing our efforts to help more communities benefit from travel to help foster connection, boost sustainable travel, and promote economic growth.