Online rental platform Airbnb injected 1.4 billion US dollars into the Greek economy in 2018, it said in statistics released for over 30 countries.
According to Airbnb, the rentals benefit the local society at large where owners live, as they promote local activities, places to see, restaurants, bars, cafes, and neighbourhood history.
A company analysis estimated that owners and travellers together created over 100 billion US dollars in estimated benefit to all 30 countries listed, with 1.4 billion of this generated in Greece alone.
The estimates, Airbnb said, were based on owners’s revenues and travellers’ reports of spending in the duration of their stay. Travellers themselves said that 42 percent of their spending took place in the neighborhood the rental was located.
They also said that Airbnb had led them to extend their trip by an average of 4.3 days.
According to estimated benefits assessed by Airbnb, the following are the top ten countries, with Greece coming in 14th after Germany, China and Brazil:
United States (33.8 bln dollars), France (10.8 bln), Spain (6.9 bln), Italy (6.4 bln), United Kingdom (5.6 bln), Australia (4.4 bln), Canada (4.3 bln), Japan (3.5 bln), Mexico (2.7 bln) and Portugal (2.3 bln).
