Wednesday, May 25, 2022
In China, all Airbnb listings for homes and experiences will be removed from the website of this American company by the summer 2022, a source who knows about this matter informed the BBC on this.
In the last few years, the stays that are based within China have made up only 1% of the revenue of Airbnb. The company is hoped to aim on Chinese residents instead, who are travelling abroad to other destinations.
In less than a decade, Chinese travellers, prior to COVID going to different foreign countries had almost tripled. In 2019, it reached 155 million, as per the United Nations World Tourism Organisation.
However, China had inflicted some of the stringent Covid restrictions in the world. As a result, travel into and around the country got extremely difficult for almost everyone.
In 2016, Airbnb had set up its business. Since then in China, roughly 25 million guests have booked their stays through Airbnb. However, a source familiar with this decision of Airbnb explained that in China, domestic rental operation for travellers had turned quite difficult as well as expensive to carry on even the pandemic had started.
For instance, in line with local laws, the details of the guests were sent to the Chinese government. Airbnb has also experienced strong competition from the local Chinese home-rental platforms as well.
In 2017, for Mandarin speakers, the company renamed its Chinese operation as Aibiying, which means to welcome each other with love.
Tags: Airbnb, American company, china
