The Emerging Markets: Powering Airbnb’s Global Growth Report

Airbnb’s mission is to create a world where anyone can belong anywhere through magical travel that provides unique, authentic and local experiences, and we are focused on reimagining travel by building an end-to-end travel platform that combines where you stay, what you do, and how you get there, all in one place.

From our origins in a San Francisco apartment, we have grown into a global community with hosts across more than 191 countries and 81,000 cities. Powered by network effects that began with our founding in 2008, today Airbnb is truly a global platform, with more than 5 million listings in over 191 countries. In 2013, there were nine city regions with at least 100,000 Airbnb guest arrivals; in 2018, there were over 350 city regions with at least 100,000 Airbnb guest arrivals.

This global growth is increasingly being powered by tourism to destinations in emerging markets. According to the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), travel to emerging economies is expected to increase at twice the rate of travel to advanced economies from now until 2030. By 2030, more than 1 billion travelers will arrive in emerging economies annually.

Airbnb is especially well-positioned to be a major driver of this continuing growth. Airbnb’s popularity has long been built on a growing desire for authentic, local travel that takes guests off the beaten path, and in recent years the Airbnb community has surged across emerging destinations around the world, especially those in Asia Pacific, Africa, and Latin America.

By 2030, Airbnb expects that over 400 million guests will have used the platform to arrive at listings in emerging markets since the company was founded.

The Emerging Markets: Powering Airbnb’s Global Growth report outlines the ways in which emerging markets are becoming an increasingly powerful segment of the Airbnb community, discussed in three parts:

  1. The rise of emerging markets in global tourism

  2. Airbnb’s surging growth in emerging markets, including the world’s fastest-growing large economies: India and China

  3. How Airbnb’s infrastructure positions it for continuing success in emerging markets

Read the full report here.