Report: The Growing Impact of Airbnb in South Africa
Airbnb released a report that outlines the growth of Airbnb’s healthy tourism and the impact of the economic opportunities created for hosts in South Africa and beyond.
From 1 June, 2017 through 31 May, 2018, host and guest activity on Airbnb generated an estimated R8.7 billion (roughly $678 million USD) in economic impact in South Africa. This economic impact corresponds to a total of over 22,000 jobs supported across the broader South Africa economy.
Since Airbnb’s founding in 2008, hosts across Africa have earned over $400 million in income from hosting, and hosts in South Africa have earned $260 million from hosting.
As the travel industry continues to grow, the Airbnb platform promotes a unique, differentiated form of healthy tourism: tourism that is local, authentic, diverse, inclusive, and sustainable, versus mass travel that bottles up the economics of travel and can be less sustainable environmentally.
Our vision is to use technology to help spread the benefits of tourism, previously kept in the hands of a few, to the many. Africa is a prime example of Airbnb’s commitment to this vision. The Airbnb community has grown rapidly across Africa—especially in South Africa—as guests from every corner of the world use the Airbnb platform to visit, stay with local hosts, and participate in promoting a new, healthier form of travel.
Since Airbnb’s founding, 2 million guests have arrived at listings on Airbnb in South Africa, and over 3.5 million guests have arrived at listings across Africa as a whole, with roughly half of these arrivals occurring in just the past year.