Airbnb is hoping to further fuel demand for
local travel with the launch of its new Go Near initiative.
The company will be updating its app and homepage to better
highlight local trip ideas and will run a Go Near email and social media
campaign this summer. That campaign will also highlight Airbnb’s recently
launched Online Experiences.
Concurrently, Airbnb has forged new marketing partnerships
with over a dozen government and tourism agencies across the globe, providing
access to the platform’s travel data.
These efforts include a new nationwide marketing campaign
for the U.S. National Park Foundation, which will aim to connect Airbnb guests
with lesser-known parks near their destinations. Other organizations linking up
with Airbnb include Discover Puerto Rico, Visit Florida and Visit North
Carolina as well as government and tourism groups from Dubai, Denmark, France,
Bermuda, the Bahamas and regions or cities in South Korea, China, Brazil and
South Africa.
The move comes as Airbnb sees the number of bookings surge within
a 200-mile radius of a user’s home, with such trips accounting for over half of
the platform’s U.S. business in May. In February, prior to the Covid-19
pandemic, only a third of Airbnb trips in the U.S. fell within a 200-mile
boundary.
“Travel nowadays is not just domestic, it’s hyperlocal,”
said Chris Lehane, Airbnb’s senior vice president for global public policy and
communications. “And most of these DMOs (destination management organizations) have
really been designed and constructed to support cross-border travel. But what’s
happening is a totally different kind of travel. So, they need to think about
how to reach people traveling in their own backyards, and our data can be very
helpful.”
Airbnb said it has seen solid year over year growth in
recent weeks, with more nights booked for travel in the U.S. between May 17 and
June 6 than the same period last year. For the weekend of June 5-7, the company
reported year-over-year growth in gross bookings for the first time since
February for Airbnb reservations worldwide.
Other bright spots include a recent spike in family travel.
Between May 17 and June 6, nights booked by families with at least one child or
infant in the U.S. were up over 55% year over year.
The ten U.S. destinations currently most popular among
Airbnb guests are Big Bear Lake, Calif.; Miramar Beach, Fla.; Panama City
Beach, Fla.; the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee and North Carolina; Hilton Head Island, S.C.; Destin, Fla.;
Myrtle Beach, S.C.; Branson, Mo.; Palm Springs Desert, Calif.; and Port
Aransas, Texas.