Across the 8 global tourist destinations studied, at least two-thirds of all guest arrivals on Airbnb take place outside of traditional tourist areas.
72% -93% Of Airbnb listings are located outside of areas that are at risk for over-tourism, encouraging geographic diversity and distribution of guest arrivals.
One way to mitigate over-tourism is dispersal - spread visitors throughout the city so they don’t overwhelm certain districts and popular sites and home sharing may help in two ways—one simply because shared listings are often more spread out geographically than commercial lodgings, and the other by what hosts themselves may recommend to their guests.
A first-of-its-kind global analysis of over 2.8 million Airbnb host guidebooks also shows hosts are helping fight tourist crowding through local and unique recommendations to guests.
The analysis shows the median guidebook-recommended location is a 20-minute walk from the host’s listing – typically outside tourist hotspots – and two-thirds of recommended places to eat are within the same radius.
The analysis also shows that 61 percent of all Airbnb host guidebook recommendations offered around the world are only recommended by one host, meaning only the guests of that particular host are being directed to that location or activity through Airbnb.
Globally, this implies that today, one can find over 1 million individual-host guidebook recommendations that no other host recommends – a welcome antidote to standardized tourist maps that spawn generic businesses, which force out distinctive local shops, eateries and crafts.