Airbnb claims it’s being made a ‘scapegoat’ for the growing problem of overtourism in Europe and says the hotel industry is the real culprit.
Vice-President for Public Policy Theo Yedinsky told the Financial Times: “We end up getting a lot of the blame, especially in city centres (but) the reality is overtourism is really driven by the hotels. It is totally unfair.”
He was speaking just ahead of last weekend’s organised demonstrations against overtourism across southern Europe, with protests in Italy, Portugal and Spain, including in Barcelona, where about 600 protesters fired water pistols and chanted: “Your holidays, my misery.”
Barcelona has already taken steps to try to tackle overtourism. Last year it said it would ban apartment rentals by tourists and has told Airbnb to remove nearly 66,000 listings from its platform.
But Theo said the crackdown is ‘frustrating’, adding: “I think the Mayor of Barcelona needs to look at the construction of hotels, he needs to look at hotels in general… and they need to build more housing.
“They are scapegoating Airbnb. They are attacking a fraction of the problem and then wondering why it’s not getting better.” He said ‘politicians haven’t been using data’ to look at the ‘problems that are causing overtourism’.
But European hotel lobby group HOTREC, told the FT Airbnb needed to ‘play by the same rules’. “The issue is not tourism per se, it’s unbalanced tourism. operates without sufficient oversight,” HOTREC said.
TUI CEO Sebastian Ebel has regularly addressed the issue of overtourism, blaming platforms such as Airbnb for the lack of affordable housing and has insisted tour operators are not to blame.
In response to Airbnb’s comments,TUI told Travel Gossip: “TUI is in a continuous open dialogue with local, regional and national governments in Spain as well as representatives of the civil society.
“The reason protesters hit the streets is issues with cost of living and especially housing. Both are driven by the secondary home market and short-term leases.
“Touristic hotels, on the very contrary, provide secure jobs for employees and the connected industries, are subject to regulation and planning, e.g. built in specific areas, keeping the impact to the local communities to a minimum, not taking away any living room from those who need it.
“As tourism professionals, our aim is to promote and protect the things that make destinations appealing in the first place.
“We see the many benefits that organised and locally connected tourism has on destinations. We will continue to work toward this goal with our partners and will also continue to offer proactive solutions like employee housing opportunities.”
Photo: Shutterstock image of a protest banner in Girona
