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지나쌤

Tourists from US, Singapore frequent users of Airbnb in Korea

By Lim Jeong-yeo

Published : March 15, 2018 - 11:20

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Domestic Korean travelers took out the biggest portion of Airbnb users in Korea in 2017, followed by tourists from the US and Singapore.

According to Airbnb on Wednesday, over 1.8 million travelers made use of some 37,000 Airbnb listings last year. Of the figure, 66 percent were Korean tourists traveling domestically.

As for the foreign visitors, those from the US and Singapore were the most comfortable using the home-sharing service, respectively taking out 18 percent and 13 percent of the local demand for Airbnb in 2017. 


An Airbnb housing in Gangneung, Gangwon Province, where the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games took place (Airbnb) An Airbnb housing in Gangneung, Gangwon Province, where the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games took place (Airbnb)


More than 868,800 US tourists visited Korea last year, of which a round up of 113,700 used Airbnb for their stay. As for Singaporeans, about 81,700 out of 216,170 rough total opted for the Airbnb option. This means 1 in 8 tourists from the US and 2 in 5 from Singapore staying at Airbnb listings here.

Tourists from China, Hong Kong and Malaysia rounded out the top 5.

Lee Sang-hyun, the head of public policy at Airbnb in Korea, said in a press release that Airbnb could be the key to the diversification of tourism in Korea, by dispersing the tourists from conventional tourism locations and closer to authentic local spots.

During the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games, held last month in Gangwon Province, more than 15,000 people opted for Airbnb when booking accommodation.

By Lim Jeong-yeo (kaylalim@heraldcorp.com)

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