City, Airbnb sign collaboration accord, promote tourism

CAPE TOWN Airbnb hosts welcomed nearly 290 000 visitors in the past year, which resulted in an estimated economic boost of R2.4 billion for the city.

These numbers are set to improve further after Cape Town and Airbnb signed the hospitality platform’s fist collaboration agreement with an African city yesterday.

This deal will see the city and Airbnb work together to promote the benefits of people-to-people tourism for residents and their communities.

Since 2008, hosts on Airbnb welcomed more than 200 million guests in 191 countries, while in Cape Town there are 17 600 active listings. Hosts have earned a combined income of R762 million over the past 12 months.

As part of the collaboration agreement, Airbnb and the city will join forces to boost the attractiveness of Cape Town and enable Airbnb hosts to become ambassadors of the city. They will work together to bring community-led tourism to townships and support greater economic and social empowerment, celebrate Cape Town as an “Ideas Capital” by hosting the Africa Travel Summit and bringing together 80 tourism and technology leaders from across the continent and exchange insights and learnings about travel trends and the sharing economy in order to leverage the technology and the Airbnb platform to boost local communities.

Airbnb will look to scale its pilot programme from earlier this year, which supported training in hospitality and technology for residents from townships across the Western Cape, to reach more women and youth in underserved communities throughout Cape Town.

The city will be invited to advise Airbnb on where to take the programme to ensure alignment with broader municipal priorities including the City’s Organisational Development and Transformation Plan, which aims to leverage technology for progress, building integrated communities and enabling greater economic inclusion.

Executive mayor Patricia de Lille and Airbnb global head of public policy and public affairs Chris Lehane signed the agreement in Cape Town yesterday. Airbnb has also committed to invest $1 million (R13m) in community-led tourism projects in Africa, including Cape Town, over the next three year.