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Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia said on Thursday his company is keen to engage more with emerging economies to build sustainable tourism options that can lead to entrepreneurship.
“In India and Kenya, women hosts earn one-third of their household income through our portal,” he said at a World Bank event on Digital Economy for Development, adding that globally, women hosts have earned over $10 billion through Airbnb.
“We have lots to do in emerging economies,” he said, adding that the firm brings expertise in emerging economies and also in technology.
Noting that the hosting portal is changing the future of work through sustainable and inclusive tourism, World Bank President Jim Yong Kim said the multilateral agency can work with the company and use its model as a first step towards entrepreneurship.
Gebbia said Airbnb, which is present in over 191 countries, is not trying to challenge the traditional hospitality industry.
“For us to win, no one has to lose,” he stressed, adding that the “company is trying to make the pie bigger and not take a slice out of it.”
He further said that Airbnb has paid over $300 million in taxes for hotel and tourism world over.
The writer is in Washington DC as part of the IMF Journalism Fellowship 2017 to cover the Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
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