Airbnb awakening community tourism

In Barbados, Airbnb has an estimated 1 100 hosts.

These are property owners and small boutique hotels that are allowed to rent through the website which has been offering locals an easy way to monetize their extra space.

“In the past year, Airbnb was responsible for bringing in 16 000 tourists to the island,” revealed Shawn Sullivan, Airbnb Representative for Public Policy in Latin America & the Caribbean.
“From what I understand that is a relevantly small percentage, two per cent of the total visitors that came to the island last year. But on average the host or owner made about US$5 000 through our platform, over the past year,” he explained.

After the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Airbnb and the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO), he explained that Airbnb is a company that was founded on the principal of the sharing economy.

“It was founded on the principal that the tourism sector is moving away from what has traditionally been, towards a more community-led tourism. And what we are seeing is that more and more travellers don’t want to stay necessarily in hotels all the time, they want to stay in local economies. For example, they want to stay in Dover Beach and hang out at the Oistins Fish Fry,” he said.

“I think what makes a country like Barbados so unique, is that not only do you have the sun and the beach, but you have great culture, history and just a lot of unique things to offer visitors,” he added.

“I know that the Tourism Authority in Barbados has been working to identify individuals and the kind of unique experiences here on the island and that is something we would eventually like to plug into as a company. Airbnb is now moving more into community-lead tourism, with identify unique tour guides that can provide unique experiences,” Sullivan further revealed. (TL)