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Airbnb and Sports: A Winning Combination

Founded in 2008, Airbnb exists to create a world where anyone can belong anywhere, providing healthy travel that is local, authentic, diverse, inclusive and sustainable. Airbnb uniquely leverages technology to economically empower millions of people

By: Easy Branches Team

  • Jul 02 2019
  • 79
  • 11078 Views
Airbnb and Sports: A Winning Combination
Airbnb and Sports: A Winning Combination

Airbnb and Sports: A Winning Combination
Airbnb hosts have earned an estimated US$150 million from some of the world’s biggest sporting events.
44% of Airbnb hosts surveyed globally say they have hosted guests traveling for a sporting event.
Sports Experience bookings in Thailand grew 612% in the past year.

THAILAND – July 2, 2019 - Global hospitality platform Airbnb today announces new data that
illustrates the strong, long-running relationship between sports and Airbnb. To date, Airbnb hosts
have earned an estimated US$150 million from some of the world’s biggest sporting events
around the world, and 44% of Airbnb hosts surveyed globally say they have hosted guests
traveling for a sporting event.

Over the past decade, Airbnb has helped cities host major sporting events, creating new, flexible
accommodations inventory and promoting healthy travel that better enables local communities to
benefit from these global showcases. Sporting events have also been a galvanizing force for the
growth of home sharing in local communities, introducing a new economic platform with positive
ripple effects that last long beyond the final whistle. Airbnb has also been an increasingly popular
platform for sporting communities around the world, especially with the development of new sports
Experiences.

Sports Tourism in Thailand is Growing with Airbnb
The Thai Government has put Sports Tourism at the heart of its tourism strategy and the country
hosts many large-scale domestic and international events around the country from running and
triathlons to sailing and motorsports.

Buriram, in Thailand’s northeast, is rapidly growing into the country’s sports hub and has hosted
landmark events including the country’s first ever MotoGP in 2018. With limited accommodation
supply in the city, Airbnb has partnered with the Ministry of Tourism and Sports’ Department of
Tourism and homestay provider B-STAY to grow supply. Ahead of the 2019 Buriram Marathon, the
number of listings in Buriram on Airbnb spiked more than 3.5x as locals recognized the
benefits of opening their homes to local and domestic visitors. This followed last year’s 2018
Thailand MotoGP where 220 guests from 60 global cities stayed with local hosts on Airbnb.
Hosts earned a combined income of THB400,000 over the four days, underscoring the ability
of Airbnb to provide flexible accommodation for events.

The top 5 sports destinations in Thailand, measured by the percentage share of Airbnb listings
in a destination that mentions sports in the description as of 1st May 2019, are:
1. Pattaya
2. Phuket
3. Samui
4. Bangkok
5. Hua Hin

“Thailand has a strong sporting heritage and is host to many large-scale sporting events that
attract domestic and international participants and fans,” commented Mike Orgill, General
Manager for Southeast Asia, Hong Kong and Taiwan, Airbnb. “Airbnb is playing an important
role in helping to scale up accommodation supply and create revenue opportunities for local
communities that are the hosts of these events. Buriram is one destination we have worked with
closely and we also see spikes in bookings during sports events held in Chiang Mai, Pattaya,
Phuket, Bangkok and beyond.”

Airbnb Welcomes Sports Fans Around the World
Every week, Airbnb hosts are welcoming fans into their homes as they attend sporting events large
and small. A review of Airbnb booking data shows that this pattern has played out at major sporting
events around the world throughout Airbnb’s history*:

Airbnb hosts in Gangwon, Korea earned a total of THB72 million (USD2.3 million) by sharing their homes during the Winter Olympics 2018. Over 15,000 travelers stayed in an Airbnb during the three weeks -- accounting for a 500% increase from the same period in 2017, and 71% of all international guests who visited Gangwon throughout the entire year of 2017.

The upcoming Rugby World Cup will see Airbnb’s burgeoning host community in Japan welcome an estimated 300,000 guest arrivals, and earn more than THB135 million (US$43 million) over the period of 22 September - 2 Nov 2019.




“Global sporting events help to illustrate the potential and benefit of the Airbnb platform like few other things can. For cities around the world, hosting a major sporting event can be both a burden and a benefit. They can create a tremendous economic windfall, but there are often questions around how much of that windfall actually makes its way into the pockets of local citizens. And the massive influx of tourists can place a strain on a city’s infrastructure, especially in places with limited accommodations,” shared Orgill. “Over the past decade, Airbnb has helped to ease the infrastructural burden for cities that host major sporting events, and enabled local residents to more directly participate in the economic benefits they can often bring.”

A Growing Airbnb Sports Community in Asia Pacific
Sports Experience bookings in Thailand grew 612% year-over-year
, while the number of Sports Experiences available grew by 323% over the same period.

Sports Experiences now rank as one of the top five Experience categories booked by travelers around the world. Unique sports are on the rise ranging from Warrior Indoor Obstacle Training Experience in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to a Flying Trapeze Experience in Toronto, Canada and paragliding with a pilot in Yangpyeong, South Korea.




Surf Experiences are some of the most popular globally with the #1 most booked Sports Experience being in Bali, Indonesia - MySurfSchool Bali - Private Group. Cycling experiences are also growing in popularity with Cycle and Snack through hidden Bangkok being one of Thailand’s most popular sports experiences.

Across all age groups of guests booking Sports Experiences, Generation Z (aged 18-24) and seniors (aged 60-90) are Airbnb’s fastest growing demographics with an incredible 513% and 433% in growth year-over-year.

Across the Asia Pacific:
  • Korea ranks #1 globally as the largest guest market for Sports Experiences, with an impressive 741% growth year-over-year in adventurous outbound guests trying new Sports Experiences around the world.
  • Indonesia and Japan are two of Airbnb’s top 10 Sports Experience markets globally, with 8,800 and 4,600 Sports Experience bookings in the past year alone.
  • Vietnam is trending as one of the fastest-growing countries in Sports Experience bookings growth, with bookings multiplying more than 20x year-over-year.

“Sports are a universal language, and sporting events have always been a pillar of global travel. They serve as a beacon for travelers from around the globe, bringing together people from dozens of different countries for weeklong festivities, adventures or one-day activities. Sporting events have been crucial to helping Airbnb work toward its mission of creating a world where anyone can belong anywhere - there are few other forces are better at bringing communities together and cutting across the barriers of language and culture,” added Orgill.

* Table below based on Airbnb internal data from the dates and places of each sporting event

All Homes and Experiences referenced are intended purely to inspire and illustrate. Airbnb does not recommend or endorse specific Home or Experience listings on the Airbnb platform

About Airbnb
Founded in 2008, Airbnb exists to create a world where anyone can belong anywhere, providing healthy travel that is local, authentic, diverse, inclusive and sustainable. Airbnb uniquely leverages technology to economically empower millions of people around the world to unlock and monetize their spaces, passions and talents to become hospitality entrepreneurs. Airbnb’s accommodation marketplace provides access to 6+ million unique places to stay in nearly 100,000 cities and 191 countries. With Experiences, Airbnb offers unprecedented access to local communities and interests through 40,000+ unique, handcrafted activities run by hosts across 1,000+ markets around the world. Airbnb’s people-to-people platform benefits all its stakeholders, including hosts, guests, employees and the communities in which it operates.


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