Africa among Airbnb’s top growth areas

Three of Airbnb’s top growth markets are in Africa, and the continent has become a cornerstone of the US company’s sustainable tourism strategy, a senior official with the home-sharing service said this week.

More than 3.5 million customers have stayed with Airbnb hosts across the continent since the company began operating in Africa, with roughly half of those coming in the past year.

South Africa constitutes the bulk of that business, followed by Morocco, Kenya and Egypt.

But the rest of the continent is catching up, according to the company’s South Africa manager, Velma Corcoran.

“Three of the top eight fastest-growing countries globally are in Africa: Nigeria, Ghana and Mozambique,” she said at a tourism conference in Stellenbosch.

As of July, Nigeria had recorded year-on-year growth in guest arrivals of 213%. Growth in Ghana and Mozambique was 141% and 136% respectively.

“They’re off a relatively small base, but that kind of growth has been encouraging,” she said.

Since it was founded in 2008, Airbnb hosts across Africa have earned more than $400 million (about R5.6 billion) in direct income from renting out their properties via the service.

Corcoran said it was working with other African governments to ensure they could benefit from the home-sharing market.

“Ideally, what we want is government’s recognising home-sharing. Then we can work with them to put in place certain tools, like collecting and remitting tourism tax,” she said.

Tourism is among Africa’s fastest-growing sectors and contributed nearly $178 billion, or roughly 8.1%, to the continent’s gross domestic product last year, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council.

“We’re looking at Africa and South Africa as our flagship markets for how Airbnb is thinking about more inclusive and sustainable tourism,” Corcoran said.

“We know that if we want to grow as a business over the next 10 or 20 years, that is going to be absolutely key.” – Reuters

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Nigeria, Ghana and Mozambique are among the top eight fastest-growing Airbnb countries.

Velma Corcoran, Airbnb manager South Africa