Airbnb has announced it will invest $1 million from 2018-2020 to promote and support community-led tourism projects in Africa.
The commitment is part of Airbnb’s vision to empower communities through home sharing and to promote people-to-people tourism that benefits local families and their communities. Earlier this year, Airbnb ran a pilot programme — together with local partners – to support training in hospitality and technology for residents from townships across the Western Cape.
Airbnb will now expand the programme – which is especially targeted at women and young people from underserved communities – to 15 more township communities across South Africa, and scale the programme to other countries in Africa in 2019.
In May 2018, Airbnb will host the ‘Africa Travel Summit’ and bring together 80 thought leaders from across the Continent, in Cape Town, to share best practices, exchange ideas and to co-create a vision for how technology can best be used for inclusive and sustainable tourism growth. Potential attendees – such as governments, tourism boards, development agencies, technology companies, incubators and individuals – can apply to attend the Africa Travel Summit as of today through January 31, 2018. The University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business (UCT GSB) will serve as the Summit’s learning partner and organisations such as The World Bank Group (WBG), The United Nations World Travel Organisation (UNWTO) and The Cape Innovation and Technology Initiative (CiTi) will also take part in the event.
Supporting locals and nonprofits through Airbnb travel
As part of Airbnb’s vision to promote people-to-people travel that helps generate new revenue streams for more communities, Airbnb will expand the Airbnb Experiences offer across the Western Cape.
This will help more locals to turn their passions into economic opportunities and showcase the best authentic experiences that guests might otherwise miss. Airbnb will particularly focus on increasing Social Impact Experiences – the proceeds of which go directly to a non-profit organization.
