CityNews – Airbnb has launched ‘Experience in Chiang Mai’, a service that aims to widen travellers journeys along with encouraging local culture.
On June 17th, Airbnb held a press conference launching a new project called ‘Experience in Chiang Mai’. The service is served as a connector between travellers and voices of local cultures, generating cross-cultural exchange while enhancing the charm of the journey.
In 2017, Chiang Mai has welcomed over 160,000 visitors via Airbnb users from over 135 countries across the world. The number has significantly grown to 71% compare to the previous year. Parin Mehta, Director of Trips/Experiences at Airbnb Asia Pacific stated that the growth is not only with international travellers, but also with domestic travellers too, seeing a significant increase of 60% in growth rate compare to the previous year. Airbnb also revealed that while Bangkok is still it’s biggest market in Thailand, Chiang Mai is the second.
Airbnb’s Experience is available in 180 cities across the world providing over 13,000 Experiences for the users. Experiences in Chiang Mai include visiting Hmong and Karen villages, meeting the sacred Thai tattoo artist, learning all about Thai herbal massage, cooking Khao Soi, and weaving with hill tribe people which is a non-profit project initiated to support the community.
The press conference did not mention the current court decision that Airbnb rentals for less than 30 days are illegal as they have not obtained a licence to run a hotel business under the 2004 Hotel Act.