Get away from it all? Korea is a must-visit, says Airbnb's strategy officer

This summer is expected to be one of the busiest travel seasons seen in a while.

Trapped in the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown over the past couple of years, people around the world are making plans to fly to a well-deserved holiday this summer, and Seoul is among the top locales on the bucket list destinations, according to an Airbnb Inc. executive.

“Korea has been the fastest-growing country in Asia, coming out of the pandemic. One of the fastest-growing countries in the world actually. We see that Mapo-gu in Seoul is the top destination in the world for [our] private room bookings,” Nathan Blecharczyk, Airbnb's co-founder and chief strategy officer, said in an interview with The Korea Economic Daily on Wednesday.

As the travel season gets underway, people are “hungry” to go out and do things they couldn’t do because of the pandemic but inflation and economic uncertainty are on peoples' minds, hence the popularity of home sharing, he said.

“With Airbnb, anyone who has an extra room can offer an extra space. It doesn't have to be a hotspot. It can be in a small neighborhood. It can be in a small town. And we can unlock these destinations. And we have an audience that wants to have a more liberal experience,” the executive said.

The Airbnb CSO is in Seoul as part of a global campaign to promote South Korea as a must-visit Asian country.

As part of the campaign, the home rental platform operator has created a special accommodation area on the top floor of Seoul's Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) for an overnight stay on Sept. 4, the eve of Seoul's fall fashion week this year.

Airbnb is working on the project in cooperation with the Seoul Design Foundation and the Seoul city government.

Two guests will be selected for the stay at the DDP space,  the Enhypen Room, hosted by K-pop boy band Enhypen and receive an invitation to the Seoul fashion week event at just $14 – a price set to celebrate the 14th anniversary of the establishment of DDP.

K-CULTURE SPREADING LIKE FIRE

Blecharczyk said Korean culture, widely known as Hallyu or K-culture, is rising rapidly throughout the world.

“K-Culture is spreading like a fire. And that's why we're doing this partnership today,” he said. “I'm just really excited about all that momentum that we are seeing here in Korea.”

He praised the hanok, a traditional Korean house, where he’s staying during his Seoul trip.

“It is nice. People can have a deeper experience when they come to Korea,” said Blecharczyk, a nerd who taught himself programming at 12 and worked his way through college. He studied computer science at Harvard University.

Last November, Airbnb added hanok to its app category, illustrating the growing significance of Korea in the home rental platform’s global operation.

With 1.4 billion guest arrivals across 220 countries made on the platform since its inception, he said Airbnb certainly has a role to play in making Korea truly a bucket list destination.

“We can help scale the capacity of Korea to host visitors from around the world because there's a finite amount of traditional hotel rooms. And most of those are in hotspots,” he said.

REGULATIONS VS BALANCE

Before the pandemic, the number of foreign visitors to Seoul hit a record high of 17.5 million in 2019.

With the onset of the pandemic, however, the number of incoming tourists plummeted to 967,000 in 2021 before rising to 3.19 million last year.

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon has set an ambitious long-term goal of attracting 30 million annually.

“Korea is a magnet because of its culture, and it's only growing over time. So I think it's going to be a compelling destination for the long term,” the Airbnb executive said.

But he said the mayor’s goal requires some heavy lifting in tourism-related regulations.

In Korea, homestays for commercial purposes are banned in principle.

“Certainly, existing regulations are very unusual in the global context of what we see elsewhere. And I think there needs to be a balance,” he said.

Asked if Airbnb wants more competitors in the ring for the home-sharing business in Korea and elsewhere, he said: “We welcome other participants to the market.”

“We have created a new category. And together we should continue to grow the category and therefore it's not a zero-sum. It should be about growing the opportunity for the benefit of all stakeholders, not just Airbnb or other home-sharing companies but also for the municipal government of Seoul in their goals,” he said.

Write to Sang-eun Lucia Lee at selee@hankyung.com

In-Soo Nam edited this article.