July 11, 2016
Surprisingly, the new Airbnb ad campaign exhorts you not to be a tourist: “Don’t go to Paris, don’t tour Paris, and please don’t do Paris.” But then the punchline: “Live in Paris…even if it’s just for a night.” Airbnb executive Jonathan Mildenhall told Adweek that the campaign reflects a growing “demand for experiences that are not like the typical tourist experiences, that actually more reflect what it’s like to live in local places.” But how many travelers can “live there” before Airbnb accepts that it has become a vehicle for mass tourism, and that its users are tourists, no more and no less? Like other parts of the tourist industry, Airbnb has become a double-edged sword. Visitors get new experiences and bring in money, but as their numbers grow, they erode the very atmosphere in which they bask and threaten the livability of the city for residents….
Source: https://hbr.org/2016/07/airbnb-is-facing-an-existential-expansion-problem
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