Our aim is to promote underserved areas and build capacity in tourism in India, says Amanpreet Singh Bajaj.
Airbnb, a California-based online marketplace for holiday destinations and homestays experiences, claimed it was actively encouraging micro entrepreneurship in tourism to support local communities that comprise homeowners, self-help groups, rural artisans, local grocers, local restaurants, and other grassroots-level cohorts with a view to support the overall growth of rural economies in India.
Amanpreet Singh Bajaj, Country Head for India & Southeast Asia told The Hindu: “Our aim is to promote underserved areas and build capacity in tourism in India. By doing these we are trying to encourage the local communities, touching all stakeholders including the grass roots level players. This will trigger significant growth of local economies in the country.’‘
To this end, Airbnb is now working with various state governments including Goa, Maharashtra, Uttarakhand and Madhya Pradesh, and also in the process of exploring similar collaborations with many other states.
In Goa, Airbnb, in partnership with the state Tourism Department has opened an entrepreneurship academy and trained over 50 micro entrepreneurs so far.
“These training sessions are for homestay entrepreneurs, students of hospitality and others who are connected to the industry. Our aim is to educate them about opportunities in micro entrepreneurship, digital marketing, branding, use of technologies and overall skilling and creation of a pool of better skilled micro entrepreneurs,’‘ he said.
Earlier, Mr. Bajaj said Airbnb, in the last close to a decade, has witnessed robust growth across all segments of tourism in India.
On markets, he said, Airbnb’s dometic travel business grew 30% in the last three quarters of calendar 2024 over the corresponding period in the previous year. “This growth was primary driven by GenZ and Millennials cohorts each contributing 30% each.’‘‘
According to Mr. Bajaj, group travel was also growing with joint families, friends, colleagues, couples etc increasingly wanting to travel as groups. “A lot of people want to explore their own backyard and domestic destinations. We have seen a 30% growth in this segment, and the trend has been seeing quite a momentum after the pandemic,’‘ he observed.
Other travel niches that are seeing traction are: responsible and conscious travel to more environment friendly destinations, mud houses, with sustainability practices and a huge rise in spiritual travel, not just to Varanasi, Tirupati, Amritsar, Ajmer, but to so many other destinations across the country, Mr. Bajaj added.
Published – March 31, 2025 09:56 pm IST
