British Destinations

More articles on the sharing economy added. Why are we interested?

Posted on August 30, 2018

I have added a couple of recent news items on the sharing accommodation sector to our growing library of article on the sharing economy including today’s BBC piece entitled: “What Airbnb really does to a neighbourhood”.  Other new additions are article on: potential restrictions in the Republic of Ireland, renewed concerns in Edinburgh, Airbnb’s rebuff of hotelier’s campaign for more controls in Bristol, and belated entries on Council proposals for Bath from 14 July and the original article on Bristol hotelier’s campaign from 29 June.

If you are aware of other informative articles we’ve missed then please send the details so they can be added.  Any information on positive or negative, local experience, whether provided for publication or sharing with colleagues or just to inform our own internal debates (please specify) would be welcomed.

Why are we interested?  There seems to us that there may be a serious potential mismatch between the apparent higher national level tourism strategic view on the merits of the sector and the destination management’s operational delivery, development and planning experience in many, but not necessarily all destinations.  The sharing accommodation sector, at one extreme, is seen as being nothing but a power for good, shaking up the market and providing much needed, additional accommodation, often of a new, different, more authentic and potentially more attractive style that has broad appeal to both new and existing customers.  On the other extreme the sector’s rapid and currently, it is said, largely unregulated development is seen as creating a range of unintended, socio-economic problems both for other existing tourism interests and for wider society within many destinations, that combined may far outweighs any localised or national tourism advantages.

How to square that circle so that “tourism” and the host communities benefit from the almost inevitable, continuing growth of the sharing accommodation sector, whilst not creating all manner of unwelcome problems elsewhere within the fabric of popular destinations is currently one of our highest priority tasks. As ever, member’s views  inform, if and how we precede, the general direction to be taken and determine the ultimate nature of the goal we jointly wish to achieve.  Please feel free to contribute.

See the new articles at: https://britishdestinations.net/tourism-the-sharing-economy-and-its-wider-implications/