Tourism Board Engagement With Airbnb Is Not One-Size Fits All

Tourism boards often find themselves in a complicated position when it comes to Airbnb and they've been less vocal about the sharing economy than the hotel industry. Endorsing a platform like Airbnb would in many cases draw the ire of hotel partners; hotels pay taxes to municipalities while Airbnb still operates unregulated in many destinations. But remaining silent about Airbnb sometimes finds destination marketers missing out on working with sharing economy platforms that many locals support. Airbnb has signed memorandums of understanding with tourism boards such as Visit Denmark for data-sharing partnerships, which are sometimes tied to regulatory approval for the company in a city or locale. Airbnb has also agreed to limit the number of listings available in some of the cities that have entered into such partnerships. The quandary for tourism boards is that many locals indeed oppose these platforms and feel they're tearing at the fabric of their neighborhoods. Locals i