Airbnb's economic impact in Asia Pacific

Airbnb commissioned Oxford Economics, a world-leading economic analysis and forecasting firm, to assess the impact of Airbnb’s ecosystem on communities throughout Asia Pacific. Here, we bring together the key findings from the research, including the economic contribution of Airbnb activity in the regions we serve, as well as the wider travel trends revealed in the data. Below the findings, you can hear from Airbnb Hosts themselves about how they are supporting jobs and local businesses in their communities.

Oxford Economics looked at activity between April 2022 and March 2023, the first full year of travel starting to return after the pandemic, and found that the Airbnb platform — both directly and indirectly — contributed USD 22.5 billion in GDP across the region.

These figures represent a 5% rise in real terms from 2019, showing that the Airbnb ecosystem has not only bounced back, but continued to thrive, demonstrating considerable resilience. In fact, Airbnb guest spending in Asia Pacific was more resilient to the pressures of Covid-19 than the traditional travel and tourism market; it shrank by less and recovered earlier than the industry average.

The economic analysis confirms what we have always known about Airbnb – that when guests travel using our platform, they create a powerful ripple effect in local economies. Of the 22.5 billion USD in GDP generated, 7.8 billion comes from direct guest spending, while all the rest is generated by a multiplier effect comprising increased demand for goods and services, job creation and increased consumer spending power. In fact, Oxford Economics found that an estimated total of over 650,000 jobs are supported by Airbnb’s economic activity across Asia Pacific.

After an extremely challenging few years for the tourism industry, Airbnb’s community is playing an important role in the recovery and continued growth of our sector. The share of total guest spending in APAC facilitated through the Airbnb platform has grown by 0.8 percentage points in real terms, from around 2.3% in 2019 to 3.1% of all tourism spending in the APAC region in 2022*, the year in which the tourism market in APAC began to reopen in earnest. It’s also worth noting that mainland China and Japan had not yet fully removed their pandemic management policies during this time, suggesting we might take even further encouragement from these figures.

Airbnb sits at the heart of some of the most exciting trends reshaping the travel landscape in Asia Pacific and this report has helped to quantify the contribution powered by Hosts and guests using Airbnb. The Oxford Economics report found that travel has changed in two important ways, both of which create significant economic opportunities for destinations.

Off the beaten path
During the pandemic there was a clear shift in travel trends, away from cities and towards more rural destinations. This effect was particularly marked on and thanks to our platform, powered by local Hosts. Airbnb helps local Hosts turn their space into a place to stay, creating accommodation options in more destinations and helping to disperse tourism. Tourism capacity can quickly pop up and develop in places where hotel companies haven’t or wouldn’t invest, but where there is nonetheless significant economic opportunity and tourism potential. Non urban-tourism spending on Airbnb has grown approximately 88% in real terms from 2019, enabling a valuable economic contribution to previously overlooked areas.

Longer stays that combine work and play
Second, we also see a trend towards longer stays, enabled of course by flexible work policies and supported by our own efforts, such as the global Live and Work Anywhere program. The Oxford Economics study has shown that when guests stay longer, they spend more per trip in the local economy of their destination. Spending by long-stay guests via the Airbnb platform has grown in real terms across all Asia Pacific countries since 2019 and in the 12 months to March 2023, Airbnb guests who stayed for 28 nights or more contributed USD 1.1 billion to GDP in the Asia Pacific region, and supported over 42,000 jobs.