Airbnb and Low-Cost Airlines - Creating New Trends?
Airbnb’s latest top destinations are located at airports where low-cost airlines provide above average levels of capacity. Surely that is more than a coincidence.
The last top ten from Airbnb included Kuala Lumpur, Seville, Budapest, Bali and Hamburg where LCCs provide over 40% of capacity.
Today’s leisure traveller behaves nothing like the average traveller from a decade ago. Imagine booking your own tickets on the internet, creating your own flight connections to reach your final destination, only staying for a few days and even booking into a property owned by a person you’ve never met! Ten years ago that would have been beyond most peoples’ comprehension.
Well, that’s what today’s savvy leisure traveller is doing, as OAG’s recent self-connecting report confirms. In Europe and North America, the majority of travellers now book their seats directly with airlines rather than using travel agents or tour operators. With self-connecting travel increasingly popular, indeed almost fashionable, the ground rules of travel have been well and truly broken.
Travel has never been so exciting with incredible creativity now being shown by passengers booking their vacations. Low-Cost Carriers pioneered air travel for the masses, stimulating markets that for years had been unable to grow; Airbnb has reinvented where people stay and why; together the two have created a new independent vibrant travel community.
Today, you can not only experience a destination as though you live there but you can also travel there using local knowledge. Thanks to Airbnb and low-cost carriers!
View the full Airbnb and Low-Cost Airlines infographic here.